The new president of the University of California proposed an undergraduate tuition freeze for another year to allow for an "overhaul of how to pay for higher education" in the state, Reuters reported.

Janet Napolitano, who took over the 10-campus system six weeks ago, announced on Wednesday at her first regents meeting that undergraduate tuition will not grow next year and that the university will try to make future hikes more predictable.

The former U.S. homeland security chief said the tuition hike would give administration time to create a tuition system that would be less of a burden on families.

"Tuition goes right to the heart of accessibility and affordability, two of the university's guiding stars," Napolitano told reporters and regents in San Francisco.

California has kept undergraduate tuition steady for the past two years, as politicians wrangled over state funding and families continued to struggle in the recovering economy.

At the meeting, Napolitano announced the plan could fall through if state lawmakers do not approve the university's expected request for an additional $120 million from Sacramento, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"We'll fight very hard so that there is no tuition increase," Napolitano said.

A standoff between the university and the city of Sacramento is possible but unlikely Napolitano said that so far she's had "a good response from Sacramento."

Education advocates welcomed the move as financial challenges plague a lot of students. According to Reuters, a smaller portion of high school graduates are not going to college in part because of increasing tuition and fees.

Michele Siquieros, executive director of the Campaign for College Opportunity, told Reuters she supports Napolitano's proposal. However, she said the freeze would not be as effective without a long-term plan to both fund the university and avoid spikes in tuition, as Napolitano has urged.

"When times have been really bad, we've increased tuition for students, and when times are better we roll back," Siquieros said. "The roller coaster ride of fees for California students is really unfair."

At the meeting, Napolitano announced the undergraduate tuition freeze as part of a package of initiatives in which she hopes to improve the transfer rate from community colleges, turn research into viable products more quickly and, by 2025, create as much energy at the college as it consumes.

But the tuition plan for 2014-15 would have the most immediate impact on students, Napolitano said.

"This is not a mere timeout, or a one-time holiday," she said. "I want tuition to be as low as possible. And I want it to be as predictable as possible."