Undergraduate tuition holds steady for 1996-97
By Daily Bruin Staff
July 28, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 28, 1996
New California budget allocates $2.06 billion to UCsBy Adriene
Hill
Summer Bruin Contributor
We can all uncross our fingers and stop holding our breath. The
new California state budget has been approved, and undergraduate
mandatory tuition will not increase at any of the University of
California (UC) campuses for the upcoming school year.
Earlier this month, Gov. Pete Wilson signed California’s new $63
billion budget allocating money to allow the UC’s undergraduate
fees to remain at their current level.
The 1996-97 state budget will give $2.06 billion in general
funds to the UC system; an increase of $130 million over last
year’s budget, marking the largest increase in state funding to
higher education in the 1990s.
"For higher-education, this is an all good-news year," said Jean
Ross, budget analyst at California Budget Proposal.
In many ways, she seems to be correct. Seventy-eight million
dollars in the UC budget plan was approved to provide a 2 percent
cost-of-living salary increase for all campus employees and an
additional 3 percent salary increase for faculty, effective Oct. 1,
1996. Currently, UC professors are paid 10.4 percent less than
their counterparts at comparable institutions. These allocations
will reduce the discrepancy to slightly more then 5.5 percent.
Additionally, $9 million has been earmarked to increase the
level of funded enrollment at UC schools. This money will be used
to add a projected 1500 students (a one percent increase) to the
entire system, in an effort to support the admission of all
qualified applicants.
Three million dollars have also been added to the UC’s Cal Grant
program. The "new funds will be used to expand the Cal Grant
program," said Cathy Staples, administrative assistant at the
Financial Aid Office.
However this will not affect currently enrolled UC students. "If
fees aren’t going up, (current levels of) Cal Grants aren’t going
up," Staples added.
But, that’s all right with third-year mechanical engineering
student Edwin Basquez.
"I heard that they were going to reduce (financial aid). This
(budget) gives us, the students, a big load off of our backs,"
Basquez said.
UCLA will also receive $22 million for the Capital Improvement
Program which will entail seismic correction work at Haines Hall,
Kinsey Hall, the School of Dentistry, Knudsen Hall, Slichter Hall
and Schoenberg Hall.
Many of these increases are in accordance with the compact
created last year between Gov. Wilson and the University of
California and the California State University. The goals of the
four-year plan include increased enrollments, competitive faculty
salaries in order to attract and keep outstanding professors, and
reduced student graduation time. The compact aims to provide yearly
increases in General Fund support.
Despite all of the promising numbers, some students are
skeptical. "Money isn’t the answer to increase the quality of
professors," said Russell Walton, a fourth-year communications
student. "They should increase pay for the TAs instead."
Students in the graduate schools also have reason to be unhappy.
The tuition per student of the Law School and Anderson School will
increase by $2,000 in the Fall of 1996 and students of the schools
of Medicine, Dentistry, and Veterinary Medicine will pay an
additional $1,000. This is only one in a series of sharp increases
which have raised the tuition more than 250 percent in the last
four years.
"As a direct result of these fee increases, the accessibility of
graduate education is decreased for everyone," Chris Tymchuk,
president of the Graduate Students Association, said. "This means
that some students may not be able to afford a graduate education,
while other students will be forced to go further into debt to
finance theirs."
Undergraduate students in the system may be negatively effected
by the changes as well.
Currently, it takes an average of 4.3 years for a UC student to
graduate. If the number of students in the system grows as planned
and the number of faculty remains the same, it is foreseeable that
it will be even more difficult for undergraduates to get into the
classes they need to graduate in a timely fashion.
"UCLA has been over-enrolled over the last couple of years by
approximately 400 (full time) students," said Glyn Davies,
assistant vice chancellor of the Academic Planning and Budget
Office.
But, Davies was quick to note that temporary faculty positions
are being added to help "accommodate the overenrollment
situation."
