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UC students could see 32 percent increase in tuition hikes next year
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If a plan by the Board of Regents gets final approval today, students in the University of California system can expect tuition increases totaling 32 percent next year.
On Wednesday, a board committee said yes to increases despite angry comments from hundreds of students who repeatedly shut down the meeting with protests and songs. The incidents resulted in 14 arrests.
According to the proposed plan, the 175,450 undergraduate students at UC campuses will pay approximately half of the increase in January and the remainder starting in the next academic year. In-state fees for 2010-11 will rise to $11,290, not including room and board.
Numbers show that the increases are among the largest ever approved by regents, when it comes to dollar amounts. Decreasing state funding has led the university system to increase student fees every year except one since 2002. Undergraduates next year will pay more than double what students had to shell out in fall 2003.
According to UC President Mark Yudof, there is a $535 million gap resulting from state funding cuts. The 10-campus system has imposed staff furloughs, laid off nearly 900 employees, reduced course offerings and implemented a hiring freeze, to try and cut down on the shortfall.
UC’s 53,700 graduate students are also looking at steep fee hikes. Business, law and other professional graduate students face an increase of 15 percent in January, while academic graduate students would pay 2.6 percent more. Beginning next summer, all graduate students would be looking at additional increases, in the areas of from 15 percent to 65 percent, depending on the field and campus.
Academic officials believe the fee increases, thought to generate $505 million, will assist to restore some class offerings, recover library hours and end the employee furlough program in September.
Wednesday's meeting was less than civil at times, as outside some 300 to 500 students and union employees protested by throwing food, sticks, signs and vinegar-soaked rags at police officers, according to a spokesperson for the police and community services for UCLA.
While I can certainly sympathize with the students, it boils down to do you want an education in this state or not?
All of us are having to cut back and come up with creative ways to pay for our bills these days.
Much of that thanks goes to the folks in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. (both Republican and Democrat) who have sailed into unchartered waters when it comes to mishandling our money.
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