Recent fee hikes at UCLA ““ a university proud to enroll a
record number of financially needy students ““ have hit many
students in a tender spot.
Total resident undergraduate student fees have risen to an
unprecedented $6,585 this year according to the Registrar’s
Office, forced upward by a $700 raise in the educational fee and
the implementation of the $84 student programs, activities and
resources complex fee.
Friday’s announcement by Chancellor Albert Carnesale that
student fees may be doubled in upcoming years has not soothed the
worries of financially hurting students, either.
The California budget crisis and the ensuing Higher Education
Compact between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and universities in the
UC and California State University systems last spring led to a
university-wide budget cut of $372 million for the 2004-05 school
year.
UCLA sustained a $53 million cut to it’s operating budget
this year, $20 million of which will be covered by raising
mandatory student fees 14 percent for in-state undergraduates
beginning this past summer, said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor of
finance and budget.
The increase is outlined in detail in the Higher Education
Compact, which states that the UC “will develop (its) annual
budget plans based on the assumption that student fees will
increase by 14 percent for 2004-05, and by 8 percent” for the
following two years. “Thus, undergraduate fees will have
increased by 10 percent per year on average over the three-year
period.”
That’s a pretty steep increase as far as some students are
concerned.
“It’s kind of not fair. … We’re students,
and we’re not working yet. It’s a public
university,” said Tasha Sivarajah, a fourth-year computer
science student.
“I’ve had to take out more loans, and I’m more
conscious of what I’m taking out,” she said about this
year’s fee raises.
But according to university officials, it can’t be
helped.
“Every single unit on campus is affected” by the
budget cuts, from 2 percent in the graduate division to 6 percent
in the administrative department, and the fee hike is necessary
because it “replaces state money cut out of the budget for
2004-05,” Olsen said.
The fees that students pay are broken down as follows.
The $700 fee hike in the educational fee is “used to help
fund financial aid and various academic programs as determined by
the Office of the President. These programs include financial aid,
instructional equipment, faculty salaries, operation and
maintenance of plant, admissions and registration,” according
to the description of fees provided by the Registrar’s
Office.
The educational fee is set by the UC Board of Regents. As
required by the compact between the governor and UC officials, 20
percent of funds generated by the fee raise are set aside for
financial aid, and the rest goes into the UCLA General Fund, after
which it is essentially invisible, Olsen said.
Eighty percent of the $700 student fee raise goes into the
General Fund.
When aspects of UCLA such as parking, research and the medical
centers are taken into account, the university has an entire budget
of about $3.2 billion per year, of which the General Fund takes up
about $600 million and covers “all sorts of things …
faculty salaries, some research, institutional support and building
maintenance,” Olsen said.
Another increase in student fees stems from the Student
Programs, Activities and Resources Complex fee, also known as
SPARC, which charges students $84 a year beginning in 2004 to cover
expansion costs for the Wooden Center and renovation of the Student
Activities Center.
The fee was approved by a student referendum in May 2000 by a 77
percent student majority and provides upwards of $35 million in
student fees for construction costs. Its passage marked the third
time in UCLA history that students voted to raise fees to pay for
construction costs.
Such campus-based fees are usually passed by student referenda
and are subject to the approval of the chancellor and approval by
the regents, while university-wide fees are established by the
regents and apply to students on all UC campuses, according to the
Registrar’s Office description of fees. Fees having to do
with health and student safety may be established by the chancellor
or the regents without a student referendum.
Besides the SPARC fee, student referenda have resulted in the
Ackerman Student Union fee, used to pay for construction loans for
projects in facilities operated by ASUCLA, and the Wooden Center
fee, which covers repayment of the construction bond and on-going
maintenance and utilities costs for the Wooden Center.
All fees are reviewed about every three years by the Office of
Academic Planning and Budget. A summary of that analysis is then
given to the Student Fees Advisory Committee, which has the power
to request an in-depth review of fees at any time, according to the
UCLA student user fee policy.
Fee increases are not likely to disappear anytime soon, says Max
Benavidez, spokesman for UCLA, commenting on Friday’s
announcement by Carnesale about fees potentially doubling in
upcoming years.
“Only fee increases can offset the budget cuts,”
Benavidez said, adding that while raises in fees helped out funding
for this year, a more long-term plan is needed.
“At this point, the chancellor is most interested in
starting a dialogue on the issue, … on how to close the resource
gap,” Benavidez said, adding that without fee increases it
would be difficult to maintain UCLA’s current status as an
excellent university.
Keeping the university open to low-income students is a factor
in considering any fee raises, and the 14 percent fee increase this
year is covered for undergraduates eligible for Cal Grants by a
$700 increase in the grant, according to a May 2004 newsletter
provided by the Office of Communications.
Some students feel increasing student fees at a public
university is the wrong way to go.
“Can’t they make it up somewhere else?” asked
Blossom Kallumkal, a fourth-year psychology student.
“Pretty soon it’s going to be like going to
USC.”