Editorial: Students should criticize state, not UC regarding proposed tuition hike

The University of California may raise tuition once again after three years of managing to keep it flat while facing lower state funding. But students shouldn’t get mad at the UC: We need the money, and it’s the state that’s to blame.

Under a proposal that UC President Janet Napolitano unveiled Wednesday, if the state does not give the UC more funding than it has already promised for one year, the UC could raise tuition and fees by up to 5 percent for each of those five years.

While the idea of tuition increases itself may seem unpleasant, this announcement only reinforces what this board has said again and again – the state needs to reinvest in and show a stronger financial commitment to the University.

The state promised the UC 4 percent funding increases for the next two years under the condition that tuition be frozen during that time. But 4 percent – which UC officials said would increase the UC’s core education budget by just 1.7 percent – doesn’t even cover the cost of inflation. The state needs to remember that the UC is saddled with hundreds of millions in additional growing costs, like deferred maintenance projects and pension, that are largely out of its control and for which state support has been dismal or nonexistent.

State funding as is cannot sustain the University, so the proposal makes future tuition increases as predictable and moderate as possible. Students would not have to face sudden and steep increases like the 17.6 percent hike in 2011.

Napolitano’s proposal is a bold and risky move, betting the University’s funding pact against the odds that the state will funnel more money to the UC. But passively asking the state for money and hoping Gov. Jerry Brown will listen has not resulted in more money in the past, nor will it now. Brown cannot and should not ignore such a move, especially when it comes from a high-profile official like Napolitano, who has decades of experience in playing the political game.

While this board agrees that this proposal is necessary, we also acknowledge that the UC should have done a better job in communicating with students and legislators prior to the proposal’s announcement just two weeks before the UC Board of Regents will vote on it. Several student leaders said they were completely ignorant of this proposal, and they should have been included in the conversation leading up to the policy’s creation.

But Napolitano’s proposal is still the best plan for giving students advance notice for tuition increases, which are likely inevitable unless legislators take it upon themselves to protect the public nature of the UC. State funding to the UC remains at more than $450 million below the levels that existed before the recession, and yet the UC expects $390 million in cost increases alone for next year, in addition to supporting a University system that has expanded substantially in size.

Considering the UC’s dire financial situation and the lack of real concern from the state, Napolitano’s plan is the best way to both actively press the state for more money and make tuition increases as fair as possible.