Fee hike burdens students
By Neil Paik
Nov. 22, 2009 10:28 p.m.
Tears streaming down her face, Sofia Campos walked up the Hill last week asking herself, “Why do I have to choose between going to class and going to the regents meeting to have my voice heard?”
The UC Board of Regents’ decision to raise student fees has made the future bleak for Campos, a third-year political science and global studies student.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do next quarter, much less next year,” she said.
According to Campos, it will be most difficult for undocumented AB 540 students like herself to cope with the rising costs.
“It is important to know that the AB 540 students in the UC system will be hit hardest by the tuition hikes,” she said.
Thursday, the regents voted to pass a 32 percent increase in undergraduate student fees and a budget plan that will remain in effect until 2011. For students like Campos, the fee increases may lead her to dropping out of college altogether.
“We are barely surviving and trying to make it through higher education,” she said.
The idea of leaving school is not a new concept for Campos, who was forced to drop out of UCLA for a quarter in 2008 due to lack of finances.
During the summer of that year, she worked full time and continued working throughout the fall in order to raise enough money to return for winter quarter.
For two years, Campos commuted two hours from her Highland Park home to UCLA and back. It was not until this school year that she was able to afford to move into an apartment in Westwood.
Campos said she does not receive financial aid or any financial assistance from her parents, who are struggling to pay their own bills.
“I’m completely on my own,” she said. “You’re a family and you can’t leave your family out there to dry.”
In addition to pursuing a double major, Campos is currently working two part-time jobs to finance this quarter at UCLA.
Although her time throughout the day is limited, she has also been involved in UCLA Radio and Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success ““ an organization dedicated to passing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.
“You try to have the normal college experience,” she said. “But obviously there are so many restrictions. You can only do so much and push yourself so hard mentally and physically.”
Thousands of students who are in a similar situation protested at various UC campuses last week in response to the proposed fee hikes.
In last week’s regents meeting, UC President Mark Yudof expressed that fee increases were necessary to counteract the UC system’s desperate situation, according to a statement from the UC Office of the President.
However, the protesters disagreed with the regents’ decision to place the brunt of the university’s financial problems on its students.
“It’s not fair at all,” Campos said. “It’s very unjust the situation that they’re putting students in.”
In response to the regents’ decision, the Undergraduate Student Association Council is working with the UC Office of the President to lessen the impact of the impending fee increases.
“We just want to be heard,” said Cinthia Flores, the president of USAC. “We want to make sure that our opinions are respected and taken into account when these decisions are made.”
Flores is working with the UC financial commissioner to create a survey that will break down the costs of housing, food, tuition and other fees that go into the student budget so that incoming students may be informed of expenses that are not otherwise noted.
However, Flores expects to see a visible effect on the student population at UCLA next quarter.
“I do expect to see a substantial number of students who will take a quarter or two off because of inability to pay,” she said.
The fee increases may also change the diversity of UCLA’s campus, according to Corey Matthews, a fourth-year psychology student.
“I’m concerned about the affordability and whether a decision like this will impact certain communities,” said Matthews, who is also chairperson of UCLA’s Afrikan Student Union.
Matthews said he believes that the regents’ new budget will have a significant impact on UC faculty.
“There is a lack of personal resources,” he said. “Some staff (members) are already underpaid but now have to deal with furlough situations.”
Campos, who delivered a public comment at the meeting last week, said she and other students were heartbroken at the lack of response from the regents.
“Many of them weren’t even looking up,” she said.
“They weren’t attentive at all. The regents see us as simply statistics, but we’re real human beings going through real struggles right now as it is,” she added.
The financial situation may in fact have a long-running impact on students, according to Campos. She said her younger sister may not be able to afford a UC education.
“For them to increase fees by 32 percent is the death of our futures,” she said.
