Facing deeper state budget cuts than previously anticipated, the
University of California may increase student fees by as much as 30
percent and limit enrollment in the near future, UC President
Richard Atkinson said in a statement last week.
Atkinson’s fee-increase proposal, on which the UC Board of
Regents will vote at a meeting in mid-July, would raise the
UC’s annual systemwide fees for resident undergraduates to
$4,784 ““ a $960, or 25 percent, increase.
Atkinson is also proposing that the Regents grant the UC
president the authority to raise fees by 30 percent if
necessary.
The current proposed increases follow fee hikes adopted during
the winter 2003 quarter, when annual student fees were raised by
$405.
UC Spokesman Brad Hayward said financial aid will help mitigate
the effects of increased fees for lower and middle-income students.
Financial aid will fully cover any fee increases for undergraduate
students coming from families with annual incomes of $60,000 or
less.
Atkinson’s proposal comes after both the California State
Assembly and Senate versions of the budget show an additional $80.5
million cut to the UC budget, on top of over $300 million in cuts
proposed by the governor’s budget draft in May.
The UC would have to shoulder these cuts as it deals with $100
million in increased costs.
State Senator Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, chairman of the senate
budget subcommittee, said the one-time, $80.5 million proposed
budget cut is one he believes the UC will be able to weather.
“(We) made what we thought were reasonable cuts and
didn’t feel like we devastated the system,” he
said.
But some UC leaders are displeased with proposed cuts, and
Student Regent Matt Murray called the state government’s
budget proposal “unacceptable and outrageous.”
“This whole situation is an expression of how the state
legislature and government is failing the people of
California,” he said. “The Legislature is saying that
we would rather seriously harm quality and accessibility of
state’s public education system than raise taxes on the
rich.”
Murray added the UC should not raise fees to cover the $80.5
million cut because that cut would be a one-time occurrence.
Hayward said the UC’s decision to propose further fee
increases is part of a “package of solutions” that
includes borrowing money and cutting student services.
“No one is happy … (but) we have to look at these
options unless we want the quality of education to
deteriorate,” he said.
Atkinson also said in his letter the UC should consider
implementing enrollment cuts next fall if the budget crisis
continues.
“Reducing enrollments would clearly be distressing … but
continuing state budget cuts could very well leave us with no
choice, and I believe it is important to communicate that message
very clearly in Sacramento,” he wrote.
Atkinson added if the UC finds enrollment limits necessary, it
would move to initiate them no later than January 2004.
If implemented, enrollment caps would come at a time when the UC
is recording a record rate of growth, said UC Spokesman Hanan
Eisenman.
In 1999, the UC predicted it would accommodate 63,000 additional
students by 2010. The UC has already grown by 30,000 students since
those projections were made.
Eisenman said the UC could save an estimated $45 million by
enrolling 5,000 fewer students than it planned to enroll for the
2004-2005 school year.
“These are terrible options. We don’t want to pursue
any of them, (but) we’ve pursued all the cuts we can without
damaging the educational experience of the UC,” he said.
If enrollment caps were placed, the number of students enrolling
in 2004 would be 3,000 less than the 45,000 students enrolling this
fall, he added.
Bojan Hrpka, a third-year microbiology student at UCLA, said
students who aren’t accepted by a UC can enroll in community
colleges or other state schools, which would result in costs that
would still have to be absorbed by the state.
“It’s not going to solve anything,” he said.
“It’s like moving the problems from one pile to
another.”
With reports from Menaka Fernando, Bruin Senior Staff.