Fee hike leads to protests
By Theresa Avila
May 14, 2008 11:29 p.m.
Student protesters were arrested on campus Wednesday afternoon soon after a committee of the UC Board of Regents approved student fee increases.
The Finance Committee, after much debate and deliberation, voted to increase student fees by 7.4 percent and to increase nonresident tuition by 5 percent for the fall term.
Excluding individual campus fees, there would be a $78 increase in registration fees for all students plus an increase ranging between $412 for resident undergraduates and $486 for some graduate students. The full board is expected to take up the issue when they meet today.
Of the revenue generated by the fee increases, 33 percent will go toward financial aid for undergraduate students. Fifty percent will be used for graduate student aid.
The decision comes at a difficult financial point for the UC, which stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget cuts.
While the governor’s budget revision restored $98.5 million in funding, the university still faces more than $200 million in cuts.
Following the Finance Committee’s vote, students stood up and began chanting: “Regents, Regents, can’t you see, you’re creating poverty!”
University police arrested 16 students who refused to disperse.
Students at the meeting at Covel Commons said they would not leave until their message was heard. Many argued that underrepresented minorities and lower-income families would be most affected by the fee increases.
Student Regent-designate D’Artagnan Scorza, along with police, spoke to the students to try and persuade them to leave peacefully. Some refused to leave and instead joined their arms together to form a human chain, eventually prompting the arrests.
More than 100 students from different campuses including UC Irvine and UC Riverside attended the protest, along with UCLA Facilities Management employees who offered their support.
While many of the regents did not strongly support the fee increase, they said circumstances warranted a prompt decision.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, an ardent opponent of student fee increases, was also present at the rally to offer support. He said an increase in student fees, which have generally been on the rise since the 1990s, will not solve the budget crisis for the university.
“All it does is push the problem on the students,” he said. “It’s a tax, plain and simple. It’s a tax on the students.”
Later during the meeting, Garamendi gave a presentation on student fees for the committee. He said if the state continues to cut funding to higher education and the regents pass fee increases, they would be on their way down a “slippery slope” toward privatization.
He said he believes that if the current situation does not change, the UC will eventually become similar to the University of Michigan, where 59 percent of the university’s core operating budget comes from student fees.
He added that according to the 2003 admissions data, half of all freshmen had families whose annual income was at least $100,000 and were thus able to afford the high fees.
Regent Eddie Island also expressed concern over the fee increases. He said such action should only be taken when there are no other options.
“Let’s get out of the mindset that every time there’s a shortfall let’s raise student fees,” he said.
Still, while many of the regents were hesitant to adopt the fee increases, Regent Richard Blum called them inevitable, though his own college education cost much less.
“Yes, I paid $150 to go to school at Berkeley ““ the truth of the matter is, ever since then, for over 40 years, the fees have been going up and up,” Blum said. “While I’m all in favor of calling Sacramento’s bluff if I thought it was going to do any good, … every time we’ve called the bluff for 40 years, we’ve lost. So I’m not convinced it’s going to change much. I’m just trying to deal with the reality of the situation.”
UC President Robert Dynes said the problem ultimately comes back to the state’s lack of support.
“The state of California made large investments in the future ““ the university thrived under those investments. People are now not thinking about their children and their grandchildren. … They’re thinking about the now,” Dynes said.
Louise Hendrickson, president of the University of California Students Association, presented a short video with personal anecdotes from students who would be directly affected by the fee increases.
“We are the ones that have to decide whether we can (afford to) attend,” she said.
