Students will need to vote and lobby politicians and regents to
prevent a student fee increase for next school year, university
officials and student leaders say. Fees for California residents
were not raised during the last fiscal year, even as the state
faced a $23.6 billion budget hole. But if the state’s economy
does not improve this year, the University of California Board of
Regents may look at raising student fees as a source of additional
income. “Student fees can become a convenient cash cow when
the state has budget problems,” said Student Regent Dexter
Ligot-Gordon. California residents will pay $4,229 in fees to
attend UCLA this year. This fee has not increased since the early
1990s, when the regents raised fees numerous times to make up for
state budget cuts in a slumping economy. Nonresidents, however,
will face a $1,305 tuition increase this year, increasing their
fees to a total of $12,009. Despite the state’s economic
problems this year, Gov. Gray Davis said throughout the year he
would not approve a budget that includes a student fee increase.
Next year is also expected to be a bad fiscal year for the state,
said Max Espinoza, higher education consultant to the state
Assembly’s budget committee. A national financial recovery
over the next year may not be enough to prevent more state budget
cuts ““Â and thus the threat of a fee raise
““Â said Steve Olsen, UCLA vice chancellor of finance. It
is unlikely the state will receive the same tax revenue from the
technology industry as it did during the dot-com boom of the late
1990s, he said. Lack of revenue will place a lot of pressure on the
UC and California State University budgets in the future, as
legislators face more difficult decisions next year, Olson added.
Because of anticipated shortfalls, Regent Velma Montoya believes
other regents will want to raise student fees, a move she opposes.
Montoya said that this would be the “worst possible
time” to raise student fees. “A lot of students are
already scrambling to pay their fees,” Montoya said.
“You don’t raise taxes during a recession.” She
also questioned whether raising student fees would provide enough
funds to help solve the UC’s budget problems. “Raising
student fees to any possibly tolerable amount wouldn’t do
anything,” Montoya said. Ligot-Gordon also opposes a fee
increase because higher fees could prevent some students from
enrolling at the UC. Espinoza said democratic legislators are
concerned a fee increase would make it harder for students to
attend the UC, so they would avoid a fee increase if possible. Fee
increases could cause some students to drop out of UCLA, which
happened when fees went up by over 100 percent in the early 1990s,
said Chris Neal, Undergraduate Students Association Council
external vice president. However, UC press aide Hanan Eisenman said
low-income students would not be forced out of the university by a
fee increase because their financial aid grants would also
increase. Two-thirds of UC students receive some form of financial
aid, Eisenman said. If fees increase, one-third of all new fee
revenue would be used to provide this additional grant money, he
added. But students who do not receive grants would be forced to
take out additional loans or work longer hours to pay for their
education. This would make it more difficult for students to get
involved in campus activities and would make their college
experience less enjoyable, Neal said. Neal and Ligot-Gordon both
say the best way for students to prevent a fee increase is to vote
in November’s elections. “If we don’t vote people
will make decisions for us and disregard us,” Ligot-Gordon
said. Besides urging students to vote, student leaders also plan on
lobbying both legislators and regents. Last year, students from the
UC, California State University and California Community Colleges
went to the state Capitol in May to lobby legislators against
raising student fees. This coordinated lobbying was a major factor
in student fees not being raised, said Neal, who was part of the
group UCLA sent to Sacramento. He wants to get the student body
more involved in politics this year by organizing a voter
registration drive in the dorms and organizing students in calling
or e-mailing legislators and regents to urge them against raising
fees.
Funding a smaller group One alternative to raising student fees
is capping enrollment at the UC. Additional resources, from hiring
new professors to building more dorms and parking spaces, will be
needed to accommodate an expected 60,000 additional students at the
UC between the years 2000 and 2010. The state budget provides money
for hiring new professors, but not for other needs. An enrollment
cap would lower the demands on the university’s budget, but
is not politically feasible. Assembly democrats oppose a cap for
the same reason they oppose increasing student fees ““ a cap
would make it harder for students to attend the UC ““ Espinoza
said. UCLA administrators discussed capping enrollment two years
ago but decided against it because of anticipated public backlash,
Olsen said. The other option for the university is to cut back on
various programs. Funding for outreach, research, maintenance and
libraries have already been reduced, and more cuts could be on the
way if the university cannot find more funding. “The campus
may need to make a trade-off between affordability or the quality
of education and access,” Olsen said.