Referendum money to give back to student aid

UCLA students may not see an immediate difference on their BAR
accounts, but for the first time the UC Office of the President is
imposing a policy requiring 25 percent of money from new student
referendums go back to financial aid.

A portion of state-issued undergraduate and graduate student
fees has always gone back into the financial aid pool but never
into campus-based fees.

UC President Robert Dynes will officially approve the policy
today, after a yearlong process of consulting with several higher
education organizations, said Patricia Romero, UCOP budget office
coordinator for student fees.

“What we’re attempting do is mitigate the impact of
local campus fees,” said Kate Geoffrey, director of student
financial support at the UCOP.

Geoffrey said individual campus referendums had no financial aid
established to balance these fees, and this will aid those with
great financial need.

The policy comes a few days before the Graduate Students
Association’s election, which begins April 18.

A referendum on the ballot to fund a graduate student writing
center will cost graduate students $4 per quarter instead of $3 to
compensate for return to aid.

The fee in this case may seem small, but for larger referendums,
the fee could cost students much more per year.

Many members of UC student governments are concerned that this
return to aid will make it harder for campuses to pass referendums
and may negatively impact student affairs at each campus.

“When you tack on extra taxes to (referendum money),
it’s going to be very hard for students to raise money for
themselves,” said GSA President Jared Fox.

However, Jenny Wood, president of the Undergraduate Students
Association Council, approves of the policy.

“I think it’s smart and important to approve
financial aid to cover campus-based fees,” Wood said.
“The only way to ensure we continue to have the highest
number of students with Pell Grants in the country is if we make
sure low-income students can afford (UCLA).”

Though the policy had been discussed long enough for student
government members to express their opinion of the policy, Fox was
surprised he was given such short notice that President Dynes would
pass the policy.

GSA first found out about the policy two weeks ago, when
Chancellor Albert Carnesale required that they change the language
of their referendum.

Romero said the UC Board of Regents gave the UC President the
power to approve increases in campus-based fees without a
regents’ vote in 2002.

“The graduate student aid model is a lot different (from
the undergraduate) and it just creates a lot of extra
bureaucracy,” Fox said.

Fox, who had a conference call with Dynes two weeks ago, said
Dynes was unfamiliar with the fee increase.

Romero said much of the work on this policy was done at a staff
level and Dynes may have been engaged with so many projects at the
time that he could not think of it off the top of his head.

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