California crunch: Students fret over fee hike
By Leila Kamgar
Jan. 14, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Different strokes may come to different folks, but all UCLA
undergraduate students are now paying an extra $405 a year for
their education.
For Aldaberto Medina, financial aid has been crucial in funding
his education.
“For me, I think that this student fee increase is a bad
thing ““ I’m not sure if my financial aid will cover
it.”
Medina, a first-year psychology student, works as a tutor in
Inglewood, and is considering taking on a second job to ease the
financial burden on his parents.
His sister, who has college aspirations, will be limited to
in-state public schools because his parents cannot afford anything
more expensive ““ and even this option is becoming more
costly.
“I think that the education here is very good,” said
Medina, “but student fee increases are definitely at least a
minor inconvenience.”
Students not receiving financial aid feel the inconvenience of
heightened fees as well.
Jehan Hughes, a third-year psychobiology student, transferred
from the University of Chicago mainly because of the allure of a
cheaper education.
“Basically, I’m working to put myself through
college,” said Hughes.
“UCLA is so much less expensive than the University of
Chicago,” she added.
While UC student fees are a paltry percentage of what Hughes
paid before transferring from the University of Chicago, she still
considers the recent student fee increases a minor
inconvenience.
“Relatively, I think that UCLA is a really good deal, but
these fee increases do seem to be coming at a really bad
time,” said Hughes.
The bad time has reached not only the UC system, but also
Hughes’ employer, Cingular Wireless. This led to a drastic
reduction in the company’s benefits.
According to Hughes, while Cingular formerly offered full-time
employees such as herself education benefits, paying up to $10,000
of their tuition, that amount has now been cut in half, capped at
$5,000.
Though resident students such as Hughes may be getting a good
deal, out-of-state residents have long been subject to considerably
higher student fees.
Second-year art student and Kerckhoff Coffeehouse employee Kevin
Hong says, “I’m from Oregon, so I already pay more than
most students here.”
In response to student fee increases, Hong admits, “I
don’t know the logistics of fee increases, but I know that
the least I can do to help my parents out is to work
here.”
Like Medina and Hong, second-year marine biology student Lauren
Severs is worried about the added pressure that increased fees will
put on her parents.
“My family doesn’t qualify for financial aid, but
that doesn’t mean that it’s not hard for my parents to
pay for my education,” Severs said.
“I think things are hard because our economy is bad
too,” she added.
She confides that a lot more of her J. Crew paychecks will now
be going towards paying for books and school supplies than
before.
“It just sucks because students shouldn’t have to be
stressing about money; we should be focusing on classes.”
