The UCLA Academic Senate will vote this week on a UC-wide proposal to officially change the term “educational fees” to “tuition,” which would clarify a confusing term for many students in the UC system.
All UC campuses are currently evaluating the proposal, said Ann Karagozian, chair of the Academic Senate. After the schools provide input on the proposal, the Systemwide Academic Senate will make a recommendation by Oct. 22 to the UC Office of the President, according to Undergraduate Council Vice Chair Richard Weiss.
“My first response ““ it’s a matter of semantics. You’ve been paying tuition all along,” said Jan Reiff, a member of the Executive Board and a history professor. Reiff and Weiss said they have not fully read the proposal yet, so they could not give a completely informed opinion.
Historically, ample state support enabled the UC to avoid charging tuition, but as a result, fees have increased noticeably, especially because of the financial problems of the past two decades.
The word “fees” implies charges for services not related to instruction, while “tuition” indicates instructional services. With these definitions, the UC has essentially been charging tuition since the 1990s, according to the proposal document.
The proposal argues that the use of the word “fees” is misleading since it implies charges unrelated to instruction, while “tuition” more accurately notes that these funds are used for instructional services.
This confusion led to a significant problem in 2009 regarding federal financial aid for students. GI Bill payments to student veterans at private institutions were linked to the cost of state college tuition for in-state residents, yet the state tuition cost was officially $0. Thus, these students were threatened with the possibility of losing thousands in financial aid money.
Additionally, this small distinction is often confusing to UCLA students, who sometimes cannot tell the difference between “tuition” and “fees.”
“The Master Plan states that we don’t pay tuition, that the cost of tuition is $0, and that is true technically because we don’t have what we call “˜tuition’ ““ we have student fees that serve as tuition,” said Malina Tran, a student representative on the Council on Planning and Budget in the Academic Senate and a fourth-year English student.
Yet concerns about the UC system’s Master Plan have generated opposition toward this proposal.
Suza Khy, a student representative on the Academic Senate Executive Board, said she is opposed to the name change because it goes against UCLA’s ideology as a public university.
“There’s a lot of concern from students and faculty,” said Khy, the academic affairs commissioner for the Undergraduate Students Association Council. “Changing the name to “˜tuition’ ““ is that going to affect the (UC Board of) Regents’ ability to raise fees? Because as you’ve seen, in the last few years we’ve seen a sharp increase in how much students have to pay.”
Khy referred to the 32 percent increase in November.
Khy said while three committees within the Academic Senate have already voted in favor of the change, the Executive Board and Undergraduate Council are expected to vote on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
With contributing reports by Sonali Kohli and Flavia Casas, Bruin senior staff.