Submission: State, administrators responsible for protecting affordability of UC

The rising cost of higher education is about to hit us all as students at the University of California.

UC President Janet Napolitano proposed a plan last week to enact an up to 5 percent tuition increase annually for the next five years that will be felt across our student population, including undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

We, the UCLA student body presidents, adamantly oppose this tuition increase. The UC administration tells us that any increase is an inevitable product of the state’s defunding of the UC system. While we believe it is the responsibility of the state to champion funding for the UC and higher education, this does not absolve the UC president and the regents of their responsibility to protect the affordability of the UC system.

Since the 1980s, tuition has markedly increased as state funding of the UC has dramatically declined. But the decline in state funding took place over decades and there were slight ups and downs in state funding from year to year. Nonetheless, UC tuition continued with virtually only one trajectory – upward.

Beyond the disappointing nature of the proposed increase, Napolitano failed to uphold transparency and accountability within our system. In fact, several UC student presidents were only made aware of the details of the increase hours before they were publicly announced.

The UC administration argues that the only way to maintain quality and access is through tuition increases. Yet, if you consider the all-in cost for a university education per student, it has increased far faster than inflation over decades. Did those who attended university a generation ago have a lower quality education than we do today? We highly doubt that. Why then the need for additional money, and where are the funds actually going?

Benjamin Ginsberg, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, provides some helpful context. In the second half of the 20th century, overall university spending increased 148 percent. In this time, instructional spending increased 128 percent. However, administrative spending increased a remarkable 235 percent.

Here at the UC, our global competitiveness falters when students are shut out of the University, especially when top administrators and coaches receive six- and seven-figure salaries. In a July report, the UC paid “coaches and related professionals” more than $32 million. Even beyond administrators and coaches, the number of UC posts making more than $200,000 a year nearly doubled between 2006 and 2011.

If top UC administrators managed their institutions with less largess, we would have the ability to provide access for far more students to higher education today. We believe that our University would be more diverse and ultimately a greater force for social change.

Of course, we know the inflation in the cost of higher education is a national problem, not just one at the UC. U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that nationwide tuition has gone up approximately 80 percent since 2003. The growth in the cost of higher education has been astonishing – even alarming. The volume of student loan debt nationwide has surpassed $1 trillion and is now greater than credit card debt. Tuition for the UC has played a factor in the systemic issue of the lack of affordability of higher education.

We are pained to see that our institution has chosen to contribute to a major national problem rather than exhibit leadership on the issue. With its size and stature, the UC has always prided itself on being a bellwether of higher education policy. The proposed tuition increases are bad for us as students and bodes ill for the future of higher education.

The responsibility – and the blame – falls squarely on the shoulders of our governor, Napolitano, the California Legislature, the UC Regents and our chancellors. This disinvestment and mismanagement of the UC has gone on for too long, and those who have destabilized this system should be held accountable to fix it responsibly.

We urge the UCLA community – students, faculty, staff, alumni and administrators – to speak out and protect the accessibility and affordability of this institution we call home.

Murphy is president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council. Hirshman is president of the Graduate Students Association.