Students in bright yellow T-shirts etched with “Tuition Relief Now” are working to alleviate the rising fees of the University of California and the California State University system by gathering signatures for a referendum.
Tuition Relief Now, a student-led and volunteer-driven ballot initiative, is hoping to gather 434,000 signatures by mid-April to put the College Affordability Act of 2008 on the November ballot.
“It’s groundbreaking and unprecedented,” said Ami Patel, a UCLA alumna who works for Tuition Relief Now.
“As the first student-led initiative of its kind, it ensures that people who are interested in this are really passionate about the issue.”
According to the Web site of the Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisory organization, the initiative is founded on two main tenets.
The first is to freeze tuition hikes for five years, with subsequent increases corresponding to inflation as determined by the California Consumer Price Index. The second is to levy a one-percent tax increase toward citizens who make more than $1 million per year and allocate those funds toward public education.
Approximately $2 billion in new revenue is expected, of which 60 percent will be transferred to University of California and California State Universities, according to the Web site.
If the initiative passes, it would go into law on July 1, 2009, the start of the next fiscal year.
Stephen Searles, a first-year political science student, one of the three Tuition Relief Now campus organizers at UCLA. He said his motivation for tuition relief is partly motivated by the fact that after this school year, he will have no money left in his mutual fund to pay for college. He added that he is uncertain of where his funds for college will come from in the future.
“It’s scary for me,” Searles said, “My career goal might lead me to public service, so I’m not in a huge capacity to pay off the loans.”
Acknowledging the daunting payments before him, he said he’s latched onto Tuition Relief Now as a solution.
“It’s about accessibility,” Searles added. “There are plenty of people who have trouble paying for the costs of college and can’t afford an education.”
Searles said his family lies in an “awkward middle-class bubble” with families with incomes that fall short of financial aid but that lack complete financial independence.
According the San Diego Tribune, the average cost of a UC education is $24,000, including fees, books and living expenses. Fees are now $7,511 and have risen more than tenfold since 1980. Patel fears fees will double again in five years.
In the wake of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget, which proposes a 10 percent cut in public education, the UC Regents, in response to a $417 million shortfall, are scheduled to meet at UC San Francisco next month to discuss staff salaries, enrollment and additional fee increases.
Ricardo Vazquez, a spokesman for the University of California, addressed the recent trend in fee increases and expressed empathy toward struggling families while accepting the practicalities of the $417 million shortfall.
“No one welcomes a fee increase,” Vazquez said. “But we are mindful of the need to maintain the quality of the programs and institutions.”
He said that the UC currently has no stance on student-run initiatives such as Tuition Relief Now, but that it is now in the process of analyzing them.
“In the event of student fee increases,” Vazquez said, “university grants and financial aid will cover the fee increases of parents whose incomes are $60,000 or less and half of those $100,000 or less.”
Meanwhile, relief for middle-class families such as Searles’ are also being considered.
“We consider many factors, including the assets of the family and number of family members in college, other than income,” Vazquez said.
Chris Vaeth, the campaign director for Tuition Relief Now, said the growing discontent among students is prompting them to organize and coalesce around the issue.
“One of the functions of a ballot initiative is to bring people out who don’t normally vote,” Vaeth said. “As youth voter turnout is important this election, we’ve reached out to presidential campaigns to make endorsements for our cause.”
The University of California Student Association recently passed a resolution supporting the actions of Tuition Relief Now.
Jesse Melgar, Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president and UCSA representative, said he supported the students’ efforts, citing the apprehension students carry for footing the bill of government.
“We agree with their efforts at finding other ways to subsidize the deficit that exists within higher education funding,” Melgar said.
Meanwhile Jenny Ward, a second-year environmental studies student, said the financial crunch has already hit. Juggling two jobs along with the academic rigors of South Campus, she said the prospects of increased fees are maddening.
Ward who attended a conference on student affordability in Washington, D.C., last year, has worked firsthand with other student activists and lobbyists to gain a better understanding of public education.
“Tuition affects every student, no matter who they are or where they are from,” Ward said. “Education is a right, no one should be denied an education because they can’t afford it.”