Regents vote to continue $60 tuition surcharge to pay for class action lawsuit

The University of California Board of Regents voted today to continue charging students an extra $60 tuition surcharge, until the 2017-2018 academic year, so the regents can pay for a class action lawsuit about professional fee increases they faced a few years ago.

Regents started collecting the fee in 2007 to pay for $42 million in damages for the case Kashmiri v. Regents, a case filed by eight professional degree students in 2004. The students sued the UC for raising professional degree fees, even though University officials had promised in the UC fee guide and other publications that they would not raise tuition for continuing students, according to the students’ official complaint.

The court ruled that these promises implied a contract with enrolled students that tuition would not be raised after students enrolled in the UC, that the UC had broken this contract and that the students should be refunded for the tuition increase.

Officials expect costs of the Kashmiri v. Regents lawsuit to be fully recovered this year, but the regents still have to pay $49 million for Luquetta v. Regents, an additional lawsuit filed in 2010 by different professional degree students who enrolled in the UC during the 2003-2004 year.

A state appeals court ruled on Luquetta v. Regents in 2012, stating that the students had a reasonable expectation fees would not rise and should be awarded compensation, according to court documents.

To cover the $49 million the UC had to pay for the second lawsuit, the regents voted at today’s board meeting to extend the $60 tuition surcharge.

Regent Eddie Island and Student Regent Jonathan Stein were the only two regents to vote against the fee extension.

“The surcharge is being imposed on students who, through no fault of theirs, are being asked to pick up the costs of this lawsuit,” Island said.

Stein suggested at the meeting that the regents find another way to pay the costs without directly charging students.

But UC president Mark Yudof said that the UC does not have many other fund sources to pull the money from.

The regents also reviewed issues of ethics and compliance and listened to an update on the Department of Energy laboratories’ progress at the meeting. In a special session, the board approved a confidential report from the 10-person committee of regents that is leading the search process for the new UC president. Details of the report have not been released to the public.

The next regents meeting will be held in Sacramento in May, where the regents plan to lobby legislators for additional funding to the UC alongside students and administrators, said Steve Montiel, a UC spokesman.