The UC Board of Regents will meet on the UCLA campus Wednesday
and Thursday to discuss the 2005-2006 budget, student fees,
financial aid and the admissions application, along with various
other topics that pertain to UC students.
The meeting will take place at UCLA for the first time in a year
and will be an opportunity for students to express their opinions
on the different topics that the regents will address.
Many students at UCLA and across the state are concerned with
the decisions the regents will make regarding fees and financial
aid.
With the regents, students from across California will come to
UCLA, and demonstrations in front of Covel Commons are
expected.
The UC Police Department will provide additional security to
compensate for the increased commotion that the regents and the
student protestors may bring to campus, said Sgt. Russell McKinney
of UCPD, but he added that they do not expect much trouble.
Most of the regents’ meetings are held at the UC San
Francisco campus due to logistical considerations, but usually one
or two meetings a year are held at UCLA, said Trey Davis, a
spokesman for the UC Office of the President.
In the past year, meetings have not been held at UCLA due to
security reasons.
The regents’ meeting will kick off Wednesday at noon with
a public comment period, which students can use to address the
regents and voice their concerns.
Perhaps of most relevance to UC students will be the
regents’ discussion of the fees and financial aid for the
2005-2006 academic year.
“The regents will take action on the 2005-2006
budget,” Davis said.
They will lay out what they believe they need from the state for
the upcoming academic year, he added.
The budget discussion includes an approval of the increase to
student fees for the 2005-2006 academic year.
As it stands now, the undergraduate fees are set to increase by
8 percent and graduate fees by 10 percent, said Alicia Schwartz,
assistant organizing director for the UC Students Association.
At the same time, the regents also intend to decrease Return to
Aid, which is a program that allots a portion of the income from
student fees to financial aid.
Currently, 20 percent of the income from student fees goes to
financial aid, but on Thursday the regents will vote to increase
that amount to 25 percent, although it was 33 percent last year,
said Jennifer Lilla, president of the Undergraduate Students
Association Council.
This proposal is of particular concern to students and is one of
the main topics that students plan to demonstrate on, Schwartz
said.
The budget proposal will be discussed Wednesday and is planned
to be voted on Thursday afternoon.
Another major issue that will be addressed by the regents during
their meeting is educational issues, such as the admissions process
and academic preparation programs, Davis said.
“There is action on a proposed check box on admissions
that would allow people to designate their ethnicity as
multi-ethnic,” Davis said.
As an action item, the regents have the opportunity to make a
decision on this proposal, but they may or may not choose to do so,
he added.
Also in the academic sphere, the regents will discuss the future
of the university’s preparation programs.
“Wednesday afternoon there’s a discussion on
academic preparation programs,” Davis said.
“This is an ongoing area that the university has been
involved with for a number of years,” he added,
“helping the improvement to the student achievement and
preparation for college.”
University and student-initiated outreach programs will be
another topic of the meeting, and students will be present to lobby
on the importance of funding and support for these programs.
The regents will also discuss the Stem Cell Bond Initiative to
ensure that the university is prepared for the implementation of
Proposition 71, which will provide funding for stem cell research
to California institutes.