“Super seniors” may soon be a dying breed as the
University of California Office of the President has released a
preliminary proposal to raise tuition fees for students lagging
behind on the road to graduation.
The proposal, set for a vote before the UC Board of Regents in
May, will essentially deny state funding to any students who
surpass a set unit threshold, in effect charging students out-of-
state fees for each quarter taken after the threshold is met.
The unit cap is currently set at 110 percent of the units needed
to attain a degree in a student’s chosen field of study.
The proposal to limit state assistance to those students was
prompted months ago by the governor’s compact with the UC,
specifying that actions were to be taken by UCOP to prevent state
funding from being spent on students not making significant
progress toward their degrees. Though measures have been taken to
develop guidelines for the excess units fee policy over the past
months, the most recent proposal, released Jan. 7, has been the
most extensive.
The proposed restrictions are part of a broad effort by the
governor’s office to cut higher education spending as a means
of quelling the state budget crisis, said Mónica Henestroza,
the director of university affairs at the University of California
Students Association.
The proposal is currently being reviewed by the UCLA Academic
Senate and UCSA. Initial response to the proposed fees has been far
from enthusiastic.
“The governor of this state wants to do things
economically and we’re not convinced that’s a good idea
educationally,” said Cliff Brunk, vice chair of the
senate.
Members of the senate and UCSA have expressed concern that the
implementation of a fee on excess units will place an especially
heavy burden on students who choose to double major, change majors,
or major in fields requiring a relatively high number of units.
Though the revised policy expresses increased sensitivity in
these situations, the excess units fees will still prevent students
from receiving a quality education at an affordable price,
Henestroza said.
“You have to understand the realities that students may
naturally change direction in their academic field of study and
more importantly there is limited class availability due to
persistent state budget cuts for higher education in recent
years,” Henestroza said.
Students caught in high unit predicaments will be given a chance
to appeal for a more units, an exemption that will only be granted
in cases when “it is in the student’s educational best
interests and there is academic justification,” according to
the proposal. Exemptions will be granted on a case-by-case
basis.
“If you have to get an appeal, it’s just one more
step that you have to go through and there’s no guarantee
that your appeal will go through,” Brunk said, expressing
concern that students would rather limit their educational
ambitions than go through the trouble of filing an appeal that
might not be granted.
The excess units fees are expected to boost state revenues by
$1.1 million. In anticipation that the proposal will be approved,
the university’s budget has already been reduced by that
amount, according to a UCOP press release.
“That’s not going to balance the state
budget,” Henestroza said, laughing.
Though the thought of additional fees worries some students, not
everyone is against the notion of encouraging speedy degree
progress.
“The idea of putting a cap on units is not a bad idea
because there are a lot of people who do take a lot of extra
quarters and that’s not necessary,” said Abijah Lee, a
second-year molecular, cellular and developmental biology
student.
If approved by the regents in May, excess unit fees would apply
to undergraduate students who enter the UC or California State
University system either as transfers or freshmen in fall 2005.