DAVIS “”mdash; The University of California Board of Regents voted last week to increase fees for professional school students every year for the next three years.
Law and business students will be take especially large increases, with double-digit percent increases for students at UCLA next school year ““ and similar increases for the two years after that. That equates to a projected $16,000 increase in yearly in-state tuition at the UCLA School of Law after three years.
All other professional schools at UCLA will take a 7 percent increase next year and projected 7 percent increases each of the following two years.
The regents also addressed increased scrutiny on tobacco-company-funded research and diversity in enrollment last week at their meeting on the UC Davis campus.
Regents in favor of fee increases said they were necessary, in the face of historically low state support, in order to ensure quality at the university system’s professional schools.
Regents opposed said fee increases would make the UC’s 34 professional schools less accessible to minorities ““ an area the regents had committed to improve upon.
“We ought not try to address quality concerns on the backs of students,” said Regent Eddie Island, drawing a burst of applause from audience members.
Increases vary according to professional school type and ““ in most cases ““ campus prestige, with high-ranked schools taking higher tuition increases.
Scrutinizing tobacco research
The regents approved an increase in oversight of university research funded by grant money from tobacco companies.
The policy is a far gentler reproach on the tobacco industry than some had hoped for. The original proposal would have banned funding from tobacco companies for tobacco-related studies altogether.
The stronger measure was stifled by faculty and regents opposed to a policy change they said would have limited their academic freedom.
Banning tobacco funding would be a slippery slope, they said, that could lead to bans on funding from other groups perceived as unsavory.
The new policy will require all tobacco company grants to be approved at the chancellor level.
Some regents seemed disappointed with the softened language.
“This industry killed millions and millions of people,” said Regent Chairman Richard Blum. “If al-Qaida were to come here tomorrow and give you a grant to study other religions, would you take the money from them?”
A push for diversity
Roughly a decade after state voters passed a proposition that banned affirmative action at the University of California, the university system’s governing board has called for an aggressive approach to increasing depleted minority enrollment.
Following the recommendations of a systemwide report on diversity enrollment issued last week, the regents tentatively passed as university policy a statement on the value of diversity and a formal call for change, as well as a requirement that the UC president present an annual report on systemwide diversity to the regents.
President Robert Dynes pledged more specific plans soon.
On the steps outside the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, a group of about 70 students and union members gathered to demand more concrete plans to increase minority enrollment.
Many held black umbrellas with the words “Don’t water down diversity” painted on the tops.
“Some of the regents called for a very specific plan … and I thought that was heartening,” said Justin Hotter, external vice president for UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council.
Looking to provide more actionable solutions, Regent John Moores proposed reevaluating the UC’s current high school course requirements, as a great number of predominantly black or Latino high schools in California do not offer all of the A-G requirement classes.
California State Assembly Speaker, and ex officio regent, Fabian Nuñez warned the board that, without aggressive moves to increase minority enrollment, the university would stray away from its mission statement.
“We run the risk of not becoming elite for the right reasons but perhaps for the wrong reasons,” Nuñez said. “So elite that (the UC) stops looking like California.”