Student fee lawsuit endures setback

A judge struck down this past week an effort by students that
would have prevented them from paying increased fees while they
settled a lawsuit against the University of California.

The ruling, made in a San Francisco Superior Court, comes as a
momentus blow to a class-action suit filed by eight UC professional
school students, who allege the university broke a contract when it
raised fees in response to substantial cuts in state funding.

If successful, the suit would call for the UC to refund the
additional fees it is set to charge in the upcoming academic
year.

In addition to the suit, the plaintiffs ““ led by UC
Berkeley law student Mo Kashmiri ““ filed for a
preliminary injunction so they could hold off the fee increases for
the duration of the lawsuit. Kashmiri said he plans to file an
appeal.

For Kashmiri, the ruling marks a deadly blow for his academic
career ““ he will not be present when classes start at the
Boalt Hall School of Law today, since he could not pay his
mandatory fees totaling $16,549, he said.

“I’d like to go to school Kashmiri said. “I
feel shut out of the system.”

Jonathan Weisglass, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs,
said he is still confident they can win the lawsuit.

“We’re disappointed because students will pay fees
they didn’t have to pay,” he said. “But
we’re still confident we’ll win, and fees will be
refunded.”

“Until then, students will face financial
hardships,” he added.

Kashmiri said the outcome was expected, and that he was
“shocked that we almost won.”

Officials on the university side believe the correct decision
was made by Judge James Warren.

“The regents only raised fees reluctantly after cutting
everything possible,” said Hanan Eisenman, a spokesman for
the UC Office of the President.

The cuts Eisenman referred to included various cuts in the
fields of research, outreach and student services, as the
university worked to absorb a $410 million loss in its state
funding.

For professional school students like Kashmiri, the fee increase
translates to an additional $675 per year for nursing students,
while at the high-end of the spectrum, law students will pay $2,273
more each year.

Undergraduate and graduate student fees faced similarly large
increases, with a 25 percent hike during the summer and an
additional 5 percent raise made after the state passed its budget
for next year. On average, these students will pay roughly $1,000
more this academic year.

One of the primary arguments of the plaintiffs is that the UC
broke a promise to keep professional school fees steady throughout
a student’s academic career. The fact that fees were raised
in the middle of many students’ tenures is why the suit is
being filed, Weisglass said.

That is also the reasoning behind the injunction, which would
have kept current students from paying the increased fees ““
those enrolled before December 2002 ““ since they say they
weren’t individually notified of fee increases doled out in
the middle of the year.

Eisenman said the university tried to give students as much
notice as possible, and that “we have done the best we can
with the state budget being so volatile.”

But Weisglass argued that there should be some amount of
“reasonableness,” and that spring and summer raises
weren’t made in a timely manner.

“It’s like going into a store buying milk, and as
you’re exiting, they say “˜you owe us another five
bucks,'” Weisglass said.

There are no other hearings scheduled for the case, and both
sides agree that they’re in for a time-consuming process
““ estimates range from 18-24 months of court
proceedings.

For now, he is looking for a job, shouldering what he said is a
$100,000 debt and a poor credit rating.

“I’m searching … frantically,” Kashmiri
said. “With the job market, I’m really scared, and I
don’t know what I’m going to do.”

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