Regent Eddie Island denied going to the dark side.
For the first time since his 2005 appointment, Island said he plans to vote for student fee increases at the next UC Board of Regents meeting in November.
“I have gone to the side of necessity,” Island said to the rest of the governing board earlier in September.
He and the university’s governing board met at UC San Francisco to discuss future system-wide budget proposals, which include approving student fee increases totaling 30 percent over the next year.
The UC Office of the President’s plan included more recommendations to cease faculty and staff furlough reductions after August 2010, reduce first-time freshmen enrollment by 2,300 and increase community college transfers by 250 for the next school year.
At the meeting, university officials said that slimming down instructional resources, the number of employees, positions and incoming undergraduate students will not be enough to meet this year’s budget shortfall of approximately $535 million and a projected 2010-2011 budget gap of $633 million.
Many UC Regents, including Island, agreed that they cannot look to Sacramento to fix this current fiscal problem.
“We are indeed at a point of crisis,” Island added. “There are no longer major fruit hanging on the tree that we can access and avoid these increases.”
While trying to seek visible revenue alternatives to a budget shortfall, UC President Mark Yudof said the campuses cannot continue relying on one-time reserves or issue debt, and students will be forced to pick up the state’s slack.
“We are going to need to help ourselves,” Yudof said at the board meeting. “There are only two primary sources ““ taxpayer dollars from the state and fees paid by students. And when one decreases, the other inevitably must go up by an equal measure.”
Close to a hundred former and current UC students and employees voiced their opposition to the current furlough plan, which requires faculty and staff to take mandatory days off during this year, and the proposed fee hikes, both of which are scheduled for a board vote in November.
The UCOP plan suggests a mid-year fee hike of $585 in winter quarter and an additional 15 percent fee increase later in the year for undergraduate students. By next fall quarter, undergraduate students could potentially pay close to $10,300 in basic university fees.
Frustrated union members and other people began protesting Yudof and the UC Regents, which briefly shut down the meeting. Eventually, police cited 14 protesters, mainly UC employees and one UC Santa Cruz student, for refusing to disperse.
Maryam Taeb, a third-year international relations and economics major at UC Davis, saw the angry protests and said the UC Regents view students as expendable.
“They don’t care about us students because when they are raising our fees $600 or so each year, they expect us to pay or leave,” said the 20-year-old student, who works two jobs to afford higher education.
Throughout discussions, several board members and university officials said they were unsure of raising fees, while others hinted at their responsibility to avoid “the easy allure of mediocrity” through fee hikes.
In his speech to the board, Yudof called the state “an unreliable partner” for the last 20 years.
Student Regent Jesse Bernal said he agreed with the president that California is putting the board in a tough situation.
“The state requires us to put most of the revenue and the budget of the UC on the backs of students,” said Bernal, a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara, during a break.
“We are a public institution, and not being funded by the state moves us closer to privatization, which would change the mission and focus of our institution,” he added.
During the meeting, Bernal said mid-year fee increases seem unrealistic and unfair for students because they are now locked in to their campuses, and such changes could prevent them from seeking less costly education.
But if approved, the two-part fee hike would generate approximately $292 million revenue, $105 million going to student financial aid.
Other budget issues brought to the board’s attention was possible professional degree fee increases ranging from $200 to $5,200, depending on program and campus, for the next school year. The board members also discussed applying differential undergraduate fees by discipline and recognizing higher costs associated with programs such as business and engineering.
The next UC Board of Regents meeting will be at UCLA Nov. 17-19.