UC $ystem

If you're the University of California's Board of Regents, and you just approved a student fee increase that would raise undergraduate education costs more than $2,500 - roughly 32%, by next fall, y'think maybe you should make those decisions somewhere other than a UC campus?

The regents faced a large and noisy rally at the UCLA hall where they met, and demonstrations were held at several other UC campuses across the state. They contended they could not avoid the fee hikes without damaging the academic quality of the 10-campus, 229,100-student system. If the action is endorsed as expected by the full board today, the annual cost of a UC education, not including campus-based fees, would rise to $10,302 -- about triple the UC costs of a decade ago. Room, board and books often add an additional $16,000.

Yesterday, the meeting was interrupted three times with anti-fee-hike chants and choruses of "We Shall Overcome," leading to 14 arrests. Outside, some in a crowd of about 500 students and labor-union activists threw sticks and other objects and pushed against a large contingent of campus police in riot gear. Several students and police suffered minor injuries, police said, and today the roit police are returning.

The UC fee hikes and similar increases by the California State University system earlier this year are part of a national trend. As the recession has brought sharp declines in tax revenues, states have shifted more of the cost of public colleges and universities to students. The regents' finance committee approved the new fees for UC's undergraduates 10 to 1, with only student Regent Jesse Bernal voting no.

In addition to a jump in basic fees for students, those in professional schools will see an increase in the surcharges for their degrees ranging from $280 to nearly $5,700 more a year depending on their major and campus. For 2010-2011, fees for graduate students at UC Berkeley's business school would be $41,654, not including living expenses; for UCLA's law school, $40,522; for UC San Francisco's medical school, $31,095. If regents approve the increases, undergraduates would first see a $585 rise in UC fees for the rest of the current academic year. With another increase starting next fall, the total cost would be $2,514 higher than it was this fall.

Given large cuts in state financing and grim predictions for next year, the regents said they had to hike fees to avoid further reductions in course offerings, faculty hiring and student services. They also said they do not want to extend into a second year a furlough program that reduces most UC employees' pay by 4% to 10%. UC administrators emphasized that a third of the income from the undergraduate fee hikes and half of the extra graduate fees would go toward financial aid, and that more than half of undergraduates would be fully cushioned from the increases. The regents panel also approved a policy that would cover all the basic education fees with UC, state and federal aid for families with annual incomes under $70,000, up from $60,000 this year. The promises about financial aid did not calm students' anger at the regents.

In January, the regents reduced freshman fall enrollment for the current year by 2,300 students, or about 6%, because of what they described as insufficient state funding. On Wednesday, they approved a request to the state that would increase funding by $913 million and warned that they might cut the freshman class next fall by another 2,300 if enough money is not available.

Good thing I graduated a million years ago or this would really suck. Then I would have to protest on behalf of my parents who paid for college!