In a move that a high-level UCLA official said could be an
“absolute, total disaster for graduate education,” Gov.
Schwarzenegger may propose a substantial increase in graduate
student fees at the University of California.
Although Schwarzenegger has proposed a 10 percent per year cap
for undergraduate fee increases, the Los Angeles Times reported
Thursday that his budget could include a fee hike of up to 40
percent for graduate students at the UC and the California State
University system.
Reactions from graduate students ranged from anxiety to
disappointment and indignation.
“I agreed to pay a certain amount to come here in 2002,
and nothing has changed since to make my education worth almost
twice its original price,” said Ben Weston, a second-year law
student.
Others, like Marilyn Gray, vice president for academics of the
Graduate Student Association, expressed feelings of confusion and
anxiety.
“Overall fellowship money will go down,” Gray
said.
“Everyone is panicking and struggling not to lose
ground,” she said.
Marc Lewis, a graduating UCLA law student, said increased fees
could contribute to a decrease in access as well as narrowed job
opportunities for law students.
“If you start saddling people with a lot of debt you can
handicap what people can do with their degree,” Lewis said,
adding that increased debt could force more people to choose higher
paying jobs instead of public service.
The UC’s graduate and professional schools were hit hard
by last year’s UC-wide cuts, and some graduate students and
administrators are concerned that a further round of cuts and fee
increases could be severely detrimental to the UC’s ability
to compete for the best graduate students.
Jim Turner, assistant vice chancellor for UCLA’s graduate
division, said the level of support the UC provides its graduate
students is not adequate to compete with other top research
institutions, and an increase in fees for graduate and out-of-state
students could cause a rapid decline in the UC’s quality and
academic reputation.
Graduate student services have already been cut because of a
lack of funding, and UCLA has been forced to do more with less.
“You start looking at the number of staff, and the number
of graduate students, and we suck,” Turner said.
An institution’s reputation is based, in large part, on
recruiting high-caliber graduate students. Good faculty want to
work with good graduate students, so being outcompeted for the most
qualified graduate students could cause a university to lose
respected professors.
And some worry the UC may already be losing that
competition.
“We are already finding that we are having a harder time
competing for the best students,” said Bill Roy, UCLA
graduate council chairman and a professor of sociology.
Roy said graduate education is more dependent on funding than
undergraduate education because most graduate students get
financial support for both fees and living expenses from their
institutions.
According to a survey conducted by the UC Office of the
President, UCLA doctoral students reported being offered an average
of $2,500 more in stipends by non-UC competitors. The difference is
closer to $4,500 when adjusted for the cost of living near
UCLA.
In addition, 60 percent of UCLA doctoral students are guaranteed
long-term support, while competing institutions ““ like the
Universities of Michigan and Wisconsin ““ offer long term
support to an average of 85 percent of applicants.
Budget cuts and increased fees could also decrease access to the
UC’s graduate and professional schools.
The Law Fellows Program, for example, which has helped increase
the number of underrepresented minorities attending UCLA Law School
by 136 percent since 1999, could be in limbo for funding.
“It is difficult to constantly adjust to a funding
schedule and an economic situation that seems to be so
volatile,” said Leo Trujillo-Cox, director for the Institute
of Outreach, and a professor at the UCLA School of Law.
“The law school is hurting for diversity as it is, so
anything that would harm diversity is negative,” Lewis
said.