The UC Board of Regents voted today to increase student fees by 9.3
percent for the upcoming school year. The measure was passed
overwhelmingly, with 17 regents in favor of increased fees and four
against.
The voting took place followed by a lengthy discussion in which both regents and students voiced their varying opinions on the issue.
Regents D’Artagnan Scorza, Odessa Johnson and Eddie Island, along with Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, voted against the proposal.
“I don’t think the response ought to be just to increase fees and nothing more and hope that next year will be better, because next year isn’t going to be better. We will have to increase fees even further,” Island said.
He added that continually increasing student fees, which has been approved in seven of the last eight years, is affecting the fundamental mission of the UC system, which is to provide affordable and accessible higher education.
UC President Mark G. Yudof, addressing worries that increased fees will decrease the quality of UC education, said that most of the additional fees will be offset by increases in financial aid.
“I think many of you are exaggerating a little on the consequences that will result from the fee increases. Looking at the numbers, 81 percent of families with incomes under $180,000 will not pay a penny more due to financial aid,” Yudof said.
He also noted that the UC system had tried tirelessly to garner support from the state government, but with no success.
“We submitted a budget to the state with zero fee increases, but that didn’t last for 24 hours. The governor’s office submitted back to us a budget with $115 million in cuts and a 10 percent student fee increase,” he said.