Drastic Tuition Increase Roils California Campuses

BERKELEY (Nov. 20) -- The well-regarded University of California, facing sharp cuts in public funding, has enacted one of the steepest fee increases in its history, jeopardizing its ability to provide a first-class education and setting off a wave of dramatic student protests.

The UC Board of Regents voted Thursday to impose the largest dollar increase ever in student fees, a hike of more than $2,500 over the next year. That comes on top of a $662 fee increase imposed earlier this year. All told, they amount to a 42 percent jump in fees over two years. Fees are the system's equivalent of tuition.

"I know this is a painful day for university students and their families, but as I stand here today, I can assure you this is our one best shot at preventing this recession from pulling down a great system toward mediocrity," UC President Mark Yudof said Wednesday before the Regents voted. "In the long term, that would not be good for the students of today or tomorrow. And it would be devastating for California as a whole."


But even the whopping fee increase will not be enough to maintain the quality of the 10-campus university system, Yudof and the board said. They called on the state to provide nearly $1 billion to cover continuing costs and restore programs that were cut earlier.

Recent cutbacks by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature have forced the campus to lay off about 1,900 faculty and staff, eliminate courses, increase class size, postpone maintenance, and decrease library hours and other services. Students complain that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get the classes they need to graduate in four years.

Private universities with large endowments have been taking advantage of UC's plight by trying to lure away top faculty members with promises of better pay and more modern laboratories. "We face the real possibility of losing some of our stellar faculty," said spokesman Ricardo Vasquez. The hiring of talented new faculty members has also slowed to a trickle. As veteran professors leave, many classes are being taught by less experienced instructors, who are sometimes called on to teach subjects outside of their specialty.

"This issue runs deeper than just a fee increase," said Leah Binkovitz, a UC Berkeley art history major as she left a campus protest against the increase. "It's about a state and a country that don't understand the value of education."

It wasn't always this way. California made educating young people a high priority in the 1960s when it built much of the UC system. But in recent years, the state has invested more in locking up criminals than teaching university students. In the 1980s, California spent 17 percent of its budget on higher education and 3 percent on prisons. Now it spends 7 percent on higher education and 10 percent on prisons.

Some fear that the continuing cutbacks will lead to privatization of the universities.

The UC system has been coping with repeated cuts in state funding in part by continually raising student fees. Its highest percentage fee hike came in 1991, when it jumped 40 percent. In 2003, the regents raised fees by 30 percent.

"We receive half as much per student from the state as we did in 1990," Vasquez said.

The state's commitment to higher education has declined even though economists say that providing a low-cost, high-quality university education provides a huge benefit to California by creating a well-educated work force and attracting businesses and investment. A study of the California State University system found that for every dollar the state spent on a student, it received $4.20 in return.

For students, the fee hikes have been a call to arms.

Early Friday morning, students at UC Berkeley took over the second floor of Wheeler Hall and staged a sit-in to protest the fee hike. Campus police closed the building.

At UCLA, where the regents held their vote, the issue prompted angry protests Thursday. At least 500 students, many who traveled from other UC campuses, gathered outside the meeting and called on the regents to reject the proposal.

Afterward, hundreds of protesters blocked roads leading from the building so the regents could not depart. Many board members were trapped in the building for about two hours, said UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton. A van that left carrying several regents was surrounded by protesting students, including some who lay down in front of the vehicle. The passengers were escorted to safety by police.

Another group of as many as 50 students occupied Campbell Hall on the UCLA campus shortly after midnight Thursday and chained the doors shut, Hampton said. University officials canceled all classes in the building but made no move to arrest the students. They ended their sit-in Thursday evening.

Two female students were arrested at protests earlier in the day; 14 students were arrested at protests Wednesday.

The regents adopted a two-step increase, with a 15 percent hike effective in January and another 15 percent increase next year. Together, the increases will raise undergraduate fees to $10,300. Room, board and textbooks will bring a student's total bill to an estimated $16,000 a year. The board also approved fee hikes for graduate schools of as much as $5,700 a year.

A third of the money from the latest fee increases will be set aside for financial aid. Students from families with an annual income of less than $70,000 will be eligible to attend UC without paying fees.

On the Berkeley campus, many students said they and their families would have difficulty paying more and that they would need to work extra hours or take out additional loans to remain in school.

"It's kind of ridiculous," freshman architecture student Sylvia Na said. "It's a public school, and this will be felt by a lot of students. I don't know how everyone is going to handle this."

Hannah Feldman, a sophomore, said she and her family made too much for her to receive financial aid, but not enough for her to afford the fee hike. "I'm middle class, so I don't qualify for any financial aid. Middle class students bear the brunt of it."

During a hearing on the issue Wednesday, several regents expressed dismay at having to raise fees but said the university had no choice given the state's continuing budget crisis. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature reached a compromise in July to close what had been a $42 billion deficit, but the state already faces another projected shortfall of more than $20 billion.

"We're being forced to impose a user tax on our students and their families," Yudof said. "This is a tax necessary because our political leaders have failed to adequately fund public higher education."