Sweeping budget cuts threaten the future of the University of
California while officials scramble for ways to maintain the
quality of the system for the people of California.
Their answers could be thousands of miles away.
At his final UC Regents meeting last week in San Francisco,
President Richard Atkinson suggested to the board that the UC
accept more out-of-state students to pay for increases in
enrollment of California residents.
The state Legislature has refused to provide for these projected
enrollment growths, which means 5,000 new and continuing students
could be turned away next year.
“We will do our utmost to maintain our commitments to
California’s students, but the lack of funding makes this an
increasingly difficult challenge for the university,”
Atkinson said in a July statement.
The university is hurting financially from several years of
sweeping cuts, and is now facing a deficit totalling nearly $8
billion for next year.
Furthermore, with enrollment up 18 percent and state support
down 14 percent, the UC is trying to find ways to maintain its
obligation to educating the public.
Currently, tuition for California residents covers about a
quarter of what their education actually costs, whereas
non-residents pay more than the full cost. These extra thousands
from additional out-of-state students could work toward subsidizing
residents’ educations.
Atkinson noted that comparable public institutions across the
country, such as the University of Michigan and the University of
Virginia, enroll approximately 30 percent non-residents compared to
the UC’s 6 percent. His proposal suggests California
residents would not be replaced, but supplemented by
non-residents.
In addition to raising their enrollment, he suggested the UC
“jack up” tuition for non-residents, as UC out-of-state
tuition is currently several thousand dollars behind Michigan or
Virginia.
According to spokesman Joel Seguine, the University of Michigan
has kept its admissions policies consistent, as enrollment of
non-residents has stayed at about a third for nearly 15 years.
“We’re not engineering that number, it’s
turned out that way,” Seguine said, explaining
Michigan’s goals for diversity ““ geographic, economic,
racial and ethnic ““ have shaped the out-of-state
percentage.
Seguine emphasized the fact that Michigan’s priority is
still with its residents and that it is looking to “provide a
high quality education for all of (its) students and maintain an
high standard of student body.”
Sally Lindsley, associate director of undergraduate admissions
for Michigan, expressed a similar sentiment, saying the university
typically receives a high-quality applicant pool, and in order to
retain a distinguished reputation, must accept the most qualified
applicants, no matter where they come from.
Lindsley also pointed out that California has many more
residents to serve than Michigan which may explain the large
discrepancy in out-of-state enrollment between the systems.
UCLA higher education Professor Arthur Cohen said he believes
raising out-of-state enrollment could be a favorable option to
others such as raising student fees or cutting programs, provided
the extra students don’t push Californians out of the
system.
“Any substantial increase in out- of-state students should
be matched by an increase in the overall UC student number so that
it’s not taking positions away from California
residents,” Cohen said.
Cohen added that he believes there is enough slack system-wide
that a gradual increase in student population would not affect the
quality of education.
Shahrouz Ganjian, a third-year biology student, pays
out-of-state tuition as a resident of New York. He said he would be
in favor of raising tuition if it would maintain the reputation and
quality of life that attracted him to UCLA in the first place.
“Most people will say tuition is already high and (raising
it) is absurd. It’s not absurd, it’s only fair,”
Ganjian said, adding he would only support moderate increases.
Despite all the speculation, UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman
emphasized no decisions have been made, and that the proposed
increases in out-of-state enrollment are just one of many options
being considered to help deal with California’s fiscal
crisis.
The regents have said their next meeting in November will be
used to further discuss the budget and that no action will be taken
until their January 2004 meeting.