A state legislative act that would cap future student fee hikes at 10 percent annually was recently proposed by state Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Merced) in response to the 32 percent fee increase for University of California students.
The Student Protection Act, which includes Senate Bill 917 and Senate Constitutional Amendment 26, would also require the California State University and UC systems to provide a 180-day waiting period between when university officials approve a tuition increase and when it is implemented.
If the bill is passed, the UC Board of Regents will no longer retain the constitutional autonomy they currently have.
“The purpose of this bill is to provide parents and students with the time to plan for fee increases and to ensure that they are not more than they can bear,” said Jann Taber, press secretary for Denham.
According to Taber, the UC and CSU systems need to look at what waste is currently present within their budgets rather than increasing student fees.
This waste includes what he called “obscene” UC administrative salaries, benefits and severance packages, as well as a research facility that Denham called a “Tahiti island getaway” in a statement. The Tahiti facility is the Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station run by UC Berkeley, which focuses on field-based scientific research for disciplines including genetics and biology.
However, a cap on student fees could be detrimental to the UC system unless state funding is restored, said Steve Montiel, spokesman for the UC Office of the President.
“A cap on student fees makes no sense unless there’s a restoration of state funding. We’d love to be able to cap student fees, but that hasn’t been possible because of the steady disinvestment by the state in higher education over the past two decades,” Montiel said.
Additionally, putting a cap on increased fees and providing a waiting period may not be enough, especially for families that do not qualify for student aid, said Anneliese Mondorf, external vice chair for Bruin Republicans.
“Just because you know the increase is going to happen doesn’t mean you’re going to have a larger paycheck at the end of the day,” said Mondorf, a third-year linguistics student.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction because we need to stop raising student fees, but just slowing the rate of increase isn’t enough,” she added.
Instead of putting an annual cap on student fees, the sustainable option is for the state to restore the funding it used to provide for the UC system, Montiel said.
“They are able to do this, it’s just a matter of priority,” he added.
This increase in state funding might be on the horizon if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger follows through with his proposed amendment to guarantee that the UC and CSU systems would receive no less than 10 percent of the state’s general fund revenue in future years.
“In the coming year, the governor’s budget is looking to make education a priority,” Taber said.