Editorial: Unit caps, extra fees limit college career

Faced with budget constraints and mandated enrollment growth,
the University of California has passed various policies in the
past few years encouraging students to graduate quickly. With
little regard for quality control, these policies treat students
like raw materials on a production line, needing to pass quickly
from point A to point B.

For the new governor, students are still taking too much time to
graduate.

Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget plan, UC
students would be forced to either limit the breadth of their
education or pay surcharges for every unit over a cap of 198.
Making students pay for “extra” classes might seem
logical to people far removed from the university, but such a
system would not reflect the reality of the college experience.

An education should allow students to explore multiple fields,
broaden their experiences, and become more curious, compelling and
inspired members of society.

Forcing students to pay for extra units will hurt anyone who
wishes to double major, change his or her major, or explore
interdisciplinary studies. Limiting students to 198 units would
force them to rigidly plan their entire education. For students
pursuing complex degrees, freshman orientation might be the first
and last time they have a choice of classes.

Already students are being compelled to leave UCLA quickly, with
fees skyrocketing and a minimum progress requirement that nearly
forbids students to work at a slower pace. Another assault on a
student’s opportunity to pursue education in a way and at a
pace he or she needs would seriously hurt higher education.

The struggle for quality higher education is about much more
than specific fee policies and progress requirements. Californians
from the governor down should see education funding as the most
beneficial possible expense ““ an investment in the
future.

Policies that punish students for taking extra classes,
experiencing extracurricular activities and enjoying their
educations are directly opposed to the state’s supposed goal
of “transmitting advanced knowledge.”

Everyone seems to agree that educated people improve society.
What’s overlooked is that students vary in their interests,
abilities and experiences ““ and they vary in the ways
they become educated.

Forcing students to pay more for additional classes completely
ignores this reality. Students should have the flexibility to
choose classes based on their value, not their price. If UCLA is,
as it says it is, a place “where great futures begin,”
then shouldn’t state officials want students to have the
chance to develop academically and intellectually in the way they
feel they need to?

It’s time for the governor, who has promised not to take
an extra dime from millionaires, to stop being cheap with higher
education.

It’s time for him to stop being cheap with
California’s future.