While students experienced a reprieve from the fee increase the UC Board of Regents approved last year, such a fee buyout is less likely to occur this year.
Last year, students were spared a planned fee increase when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bought out the amount of the increase.
But with a budget shortfall expected this year, an increase is currently included in the state budget and likely there is little room to give additional funds to the university.
During the May revise, in which the budget is reviewed after taxes are accounted for, the state Legislature will have another opportunity to review the fee increase and have the ability to buy them out if the budget allows. The final budget is due July 1.
Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, said that while it is too early to say whether there will be enough money to cover the fee increase, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office is currently forecasting a budget deficit that would make a buyout of the fee increase unlikely.
“It’s pretty likely that the state will still have a pretty significant deficit ““ we’re hearing somewhere around $3 billion,” Smyth said. “When you have a deficit like that, you don’t have much money to spend on anything other than the most essential services.”
UC Students Association President Bill Shiebler said his organization, along with organizations representing the California State University and community colleges, is shifting its lobbying efforts from the governor to the state Legislature because the governor’s budget calls for fee increases.
He also said UCSA is encouraging community members affected by public higher education to lobby their state legislators, noting that over 3 million people are involved in public higher education in California.
“Two million seven-hundred thousand are in the community colleges, 400,000 in CSU and 200,000 in the UC system, … but if you look at all the parents, we’re doubling or tripling that number,” he said.
Opponents of the fee increase argue that higher fees will force some students to work longer hours, take out more loans, and dedicate less time to academics and extracurricular activities.
But H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the state’s Department of Finance, stressed that 45 percent of the fee increase will go toward financial aid and one-third will go to undergraduate and professional programs.
Palmer added that Schwarzenegger’s agreement with UC President Robert Dynes to limit fee increases to 10 percent each year “has brought a level of stability and predictability for students and their parents when they’re calculating the cost of higher education.”
He also referred to a California Postsecondary Education Commission report that University of California fees only cover 34 percent of the university’s operating costs.
“For every dollar that it costs to educate a student, that student will only be paying 34 percent,” Palmer said, adding that UC fees are lower than those of comparable public universities in other states, such as the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan.
But Shiebler said the fee increases do not necessarily increase the quality of a UC education.
“Fees have gone up almost 100 percent in the past six years, and I promise you the quality of a UC education has not gone up 100 percent,” he said.
UCSA is planning for a longterm battle against fee increases, because the governor’s agreement with Dynes calls for fee increases through 2011.
Shiebler said the predicted budget deficit “makes our fight tougher, but not any less important, and not any less necessary.”
Jeanalee Obergfell, director of state affairs for the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president’s office, said students who would be greatly affected by a fee increase and have gone through lobby training are speaking to the state Legislature.
Smyth said he empathizes with current UC students because he remembers how fees increased when he was a student at UC Davis.
“It would be naive to say that students aren’t gong to be affected,” he said. “Each student has their own situation, but (a fee increase) may force some students to lessen their unit load, which could slow graduation rates.”