Students who signed up for summer classes at the University of
California were notified over the weekend of a fee increase of 14
percent for undergraduates and 20 percent for graduate
coursework.
The students notified had registered for summer sessions at the
UC campuses before the regents voted last week to increase student
fees.
The new unit fee is $126 for undergraduates and $174 for
graduates.
The fee hike came in response to the compact announced between
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC officials, including President
Robert Dynes. Under the compact, the UC loses $372 million in state
funds.
“It’s university-wide policy that summer session
fees are the equivalent of the upcoming fall quarter,” said
David Unruh, assistant provost of UCLA Summer Sessions and Special
Projects.
“Raising fees is not something anyone wants to do, but it
is necessary to compensate for the cut in the UC budget,”
Unruh said.
The fees were raised at the same rate as fees for 2004-2005.
Students signing up for summer courses were warned when
registering for classes about a possible increase in student fees
because of the state budget situation, but many students signed up
even with a likely unit fee increase.
Sylvia Ng, a second-year economics and mathematics student, said
she registered for summer session knowing that fees could
increase.
“If they had increased the fees before, I still would have
taken the classes,” she said.
There was no indication of the extent to which the fees might
have increased until the agreement between Schwarzenegger and the
UC was announced two weeks ago.
The advertised per-unit fee was $111 for undergraduates before
the increases were announced.
Michelle Chu, a first-year undeclared student, said the increase
affected her summer plans “because the point of summer school
is to be cheaper, but with the fee increase it’s just not
feasible.”
Other students behind on their academic progress have to take
summer classes, fee hike or no fee hike.
According to the compact reached between the UC and the
governor, financial aid will cover increases for students receiving
Cal Grants.
Summer session is a less expensive way for many students to take
classes because charges are based on the number of units a student
takes as opposed to the flat student fee charged during the other
quarters.
Unit fees during summer session will likely increase in the next
few years as well if the regents enact new fee increases as
expected.
Under the compact, fees for resident undergraduates would rise 8
percent each year in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. Fees for graduate
students would rise 10 percent each year.