Newsbrief: Grads at UCs bash tuition increases
posted November 20, 2009
by Cee-Ning Wong and Sydney Rock of The Paly Voice
Paly graduates attending University of California schools are responding with anger and frustration toward the recent 32-percent tuition increase approved by UC regents on Thursday, Nov. 19.
The increase, decided by a vote of 20-1 by UC regents, will raise undergraduate tuition from $7,788 to $10,302 next fall, and a 15-percent increase will begin this January, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Students staged protests on many of the UC campuses in response to the tuition hike, including demonstrations at UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Davis.
Laura Mitchell, a 2005 Paly graduate who attends UC Davis, said she was outraged by the tuition hike.
"It makes it impossible for an entire demographic of students to afford college education, which I think is essentially criminal," Mitchell said.
Students staged a peaceful protest at UC Davis' Mrak Hall on Thursday night in response to the tuition increases, according to Mitchell, who said 52 students were arrested and held until Friday morning.
Mitchell said protests are the most effective way to voice student opinions.
"I think that protests are a great way to deal with this kind of situation," Mitchell said. "Students have tried to make their voices heard in other ways, but basically they [the administrators] refused to hear it. At this point we're using the tools that we have available to us."
Many students feel the tuition increases are unfair because similar cuts are not being made from administrators' salaries, according to 2009 Paly graduate Seung-Yeon Choi, who attends UC Berkeley.
"I was very disappointed that they [the UC] decided to increase our fees by 32 percent because a lot of this money is going towards larger paychecks for the chancellor and colleagues," Choi said.
Other students including 2008 graduate Zal Dordi, who attends UC Davis, say that the tuition increases are necessary to maintain the UC system.
"My opinion on the matter is that these cuts in the budget and increases in fees are necessary for the survival of the UC system," Dordi said. "California's state fiscal crisis is not going away any time soon and as regrettable that it is to make such large cuts in public education, it is necessary to do so in order to get the state, and more specifically the UC system, out of this crisis."
Share on Facebook
Retweet this!
Digg this!
"It makes it impossible for an entire demographic of students to afford college education, which I think is essentially criminal" is an outright lie. There are things called community colleges and California State Universities that people can attend that are still far cheaper than the University of California system. Furthermore, student loans and financial aid still exist. But hey, us rich liberal elite Palo Alto graduates must express our solidarity with our proletariat brethren no matter how false our statements might be.
What an offensive and condescending (not to mention inaccurate) piece of feedback.
"As part of an overall strategy to address an unprecedented budget reduction of $584 million for 2009-10, California State University campuses will not accept student applications for the 2010 spring term â€" with very few exceptions." - (http://www.calstate.edu/pa/News/2009/spring-admissions.shtml)
California state budget cuts have effected all California community colleges, CSUs, and UCs. We're protesting not only the 32% fee increase and the poor management of the UC budget by the Regents (and the UCD administration's allocation of our own school's budget) BUT also Yudof's attempt to privatize this public university and in defense of educational equity. Student loans and financial aid are NOT a solution, they can assist in the moment but loans can also create a long term financial burden for students and their families. Students deserve accessible quality education, and it is absolutely unacceptable for the Regents to have increased student fees.
Please further educate on this issue. This is a great and informative segment from Democracy Now! Check it out: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/20/students
Yeah students can go to Cal States but they will just raise fee there too. The point is that students at "PUBLIC" universities should have to dig themselves into more debt just to attend college. I believe the demographic that is mentioned is the one that does not receive and type of financial aid and has found it increasing depressing to watch themselves sink into tens of thousands of dollars into debt before even reaching the age of 21, and this is at your so called "Cheap" Cal State. If we can stop tuition increase here then fees will increase at the cal state system and again at the community college systems.
Do the majority of people who attend college apply to start during the 2010 spring term? Are CSU and community college tuitions going to be increased beyond what the pre-raise UC tuition was? If your answers to those questions is "no" then the statement that UC tuition hikes are going to prevent "an entire demographic" from attending college is a lie.
Furthermore, let us accept your claim that the tuition hike is bad (which it is, but unlike you I see it as a necessary evil since the money simply doesn't exist). What do you propose to do to make up the state budget deficit such that there is money to give to the UC's without making the state even more bankrupt? And not "oh reduce the amount of money the evil administrators get each year." We are talking about billions of dollars, not a couple hundred thousand, that need to be saved.