In an attempt to remain competitive with other universities,
graduate students from the north to the south side of campus are
being charged higher fees to offset the drop in state funding to
the University of California system over the past five years.
Graduate students said though they understood why the university
had to increase student fees, they did not feel they were notified
of the increases soon enough.
In a November 2004 meeting, the UC Board of Regents adopted the
state budget proposal for the 2005-2006 year that called for a
student fee increase of 10 percent for resident graduate academic
students and 8 percent for resident undergraduates, which equates
to $628 and $457, respectively.
Since 2000-2001, the UC’s state-funded operating budget
has declined 15 percent while its overall student enrollment has
increased 19 percent.
The regents also approved a $4,000 “professional
differential fee,” which will be levied on the UCLA
professional schools of public health, international relations and
pacific studies and the department of public policy. Most of the
revenue from the professional differential fee will be spent within
each respective department.
Mark Peterson, dean and a professor in the UCLA School of Public
Affairs, said increased fees are part of a national trend, but at
UCLA the “main issue of contention is that the (professional
differential fee) applies to continuing students.”
But despite the recent fee hike, Peterson said UCLA is still
about half the cost of comparable schools. Director of Public
Policy Student Services Maciek Kolodzeijcak said that the fee will
help “compensate for the ever diminishing state
funding.”
Peterson said while his department had been asking for the
professional differential fee for years, he “knew nothing
about it being on the regents’ November agenda.” This
element of surprise has been a common complaint throughout these
three affected schools.
The Graduate Student Association, which represents the 10,000 to
11,000 graduate and professional students at UCLA, has been
approached by students from the schools of public health and public
policy about the fee increases.
GSA Vice President of Academic Affairs Michelle Sugi said
“students were not even informed that this was on the
table.”
She said public policy students found out this quarter that they
will face the $4,000 professional differential fee, as well as the
10 percent increase in graduate student fees. Sugi said the fees
may decrease diversity on campus. Especially in the field of public
health, Sugi said there will be “less diverse people going
into the field where diversity is needed.”
Kolodzeijcak said “on the one hand we’ll be happy
with the results of the additional income” but that
continuing students being charged “is latently
unfair.”
GSA officials say they have not been approached by any students
from international relations and pacific studies, a smaller
department that will also be charged the professional differential
fee for the 2005-2006 school year.
The public policy department intends to use $1,000 from the fee
on financial aid and fellowships, $1,000 for department resources
such as student services and faculty recruitment, and $1,000 is
earmarked to go outside the school to UCLA administration.
The UCLA School of Public Health plans to improve their computer
labs and facilities and finance more scholarships.
School of Public Health student Veronica Gutierrez said she does
not believe many students in her school will leave as a result of
the fees. Their specialized research and close relationship with
their advisor would make it difficult to do the same research at
another institution, she said.
“Doctoral students are really invested, and they
can’t just pack up and leave,” she said. “I came
to Los Angeles because it had the diversity and demographics that I
was interested in studying, but I can see students deciding not to
come here because they see it as unaccommodating to student
needs.”
Sugi said that while the professional fee will make UCLA
“more competitive” with other schools, she asked if
“our mission is to provide quality education to Californians
or to compete with private schools.”