Wednesday, January 22, 1997
FEES:
Regents supposedly keeping up with ‘comparable institutions,’
but rankings fallBy Kalpen Modi
This morning I reached for a copy of the Daily Bruin, planning
to read it after breakfast, when a phrase on Page One caught my
eye. "Increase in tuition approved by Regents." WHAT?! I don’t want
this to be another one of those whiny Viewpoint articles that says
everyone is oppressed, so hear me out. This particular increase
applies to all out-of-state and professional school students. I
will focus on the former here.
Did you know that only 6 percent of UC students come from
outside the state of California? Ironic, isn’t it, that a
university that says it’s so pro-diversity doesn’t admit people
from all over the place. To top it all off, the regents have voted
to raise out-of-state fees by $590. WHY?! I think the close to
$18,000 punishment I pay is more than enough to make up for the
fact that I’m from the East Coast. The reasoning for the increase
brings insult to this financial and academic injury.
The Bruin has stated that the regents increased tuition to "keep
fee levels on par with comparable institutions". But let’s not
forget that UCLA has been constantly declining in the national
collegiate rankings. We used to be in the top 20. Now we’re barely
top 40. So why should we pay more if the name is worth less? Why
should I have to dish out more money when I could attend a
"comparable institution" such as Rutgers (about $4,600 a year) or
Wake Forest for a little more. What’s the matter  did you
think UCLA was comparable to Cornell and Penn? Nope. That used to
be the case. Now that we’ve dropped so much in the national
rankings, we are no longer up there with the Ivy League and schools
like North Carolina, Michigan and Northwestern.
It is ridiculous that I am going to have to pay even more than I
do now to go to UCLA. I know that some of you are thinking, "Well,
if you don’t like it genius, then go back to the East Coast." Yeah,
that’s a good enough solution to me, but not exactly the point I’m
trying to make here. It is statistically harder for out-of-state
students to get into UCLA or UC Berkeley than it is to get into
Yale. L.A.’s got the sun, so we come. It’s also cheaper than Yale,
but not comparable academically. It’s a strange scenario. So first
they try and get the best of the best from out of state. Then they
let UCLA drop nationally. And then they raise tuition. Maybe
transferring would not be such a bad idea. I’m getting fed up with
what’s been going on. What’s next  sterilization for
out-of-state students?