"We as students have nothing left to give you but the shirts off our backs,"
Get a job...
Posted on 11/18/2004 5:43:14 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - University of California regents on Thursday approved a fee hike over the objections of students, who added a theatrical flourish to their arguments by peeling off T-shirts to give officials "the shirts off our backs."
The eight percent increase brings average undergraduate fees to $6,769 for in-state residents, including miscellaneous campus fees, and is part of a longterm funding agreement UC officials reached with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last spring.
The increase, approved by a vote of 13-1, was part of a budget proposal of $2.8 billion. The hike means UC costs will have gone up for four years in a row, a total increase of 79 percent.
UC officials say their agreement with the governor's office makes sense because it provides some stability in the face of the state's multibillion dollar deficit. It also comes with the promise of increased state funding to start repairing the damage done by several years of deep budget cuts.
"It's absolutely painful, but we're in a delicate balancing act. Students want to come to the University of California because of its quality," said UC President Robert C. Dynes. "We must maintain its quality, and it has been eroding."
But students said the higher costs were likely to squeeze some out.
"It's becoming harder and harder," said Christopher Sweeten, a UC San Diego student who attended Thursday's meeting to ask regents not to raise fees.
"You clearly are taxing out the poor and the middle class," said Allende Palma-Saracho, a UCLA student.
To demonstrate their feelings, students took off T-shirts covering their regular clothes and tossed them toward the regents while they were discussing the issue of fees.
"We as students have nothing left to give you but the shirts off our backs," Sweeten told the board. Later, more than two dozen students made the same symbolic gesture after regents took their final vote.
Along with the undergraduate fees, costs for graduate students are going up 10 percent, or $628 a year, bringing average total fees to $8,556, including miscellaneous campus fees. Professional students also will see increases.
Out-of-state students, who have to pay tuition as well as fees, will see their tuition go up 5 percent, for a total average of $24,589.
The state's other major public university system, California State University, also signed a longterm agreement with the governor. Last month, CSU trustees approved raising undergrad systemwide fees by 8 percent, bringing the average total including campus fees to $3,102. They also raised graduate student fees by 10 percent.
UC officials noted that even with the increases, UC undergraduate fees will be about $1,100 lower than the projected average at comparable institutions like the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois.
They also pointed out that about 25 percent of the new fee revenue will be put into financial aid so the poorest students will not feel the brunt of the increases. That is an increase over the 20 percent returned to aid last year but below previous years when UC set aside 33 percent of new fee revenue for financial aid.
Students had argued strongly for returning more money to financial aid, a view that appeared to be supported by Regent Norman Pattiz when he was told by UC staff that increasing the return rate from 25 percent to 33 percent would cost $6 million. "There isn't any place within the entire University of California system where we can't find $6 million?" he said incredulously.
UC officials say they faced a number of difficult decisions to deal with shrinking state support.
In 1985, the state contributed about $15,000 in current dollars toward the cost of educating UC students, but today the total is about $9,000, said UC spokesman Brad Hayward.
"Right now, we are just beginning to dig out from the budget cuts of these last few years and trying to rebuild our programs," he said.
---
On the Net: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu
The teaching load for UC profs is pathetic. They should stop requiring so many garbage publications, at least from liberal arts types, and make them teach. Make them use their summers to publish stuff and require twice as much teaching time.
The UC Regents are killing me. Thank goodness my daughter has only 2 quarters to go and my son graduated this year! This system needs a complete overhaul!
When I attended UCLA in '66 to '70 the tuition was $80.50 per quarter. I bought all my books each quarter for $50-$100.
Universities are wasteful with money and have no incentives to be frugal with money since the taxpayers are on the hook for what they can't squeeze out of the students and their parents.
Cut all liberal arts, paper writing, useless majors like:
English (we speak English)
Foreign Languages (English is the international language)
Social Studies (Marxism lost)
Ethnic Studies (useless)
Psychology (even more useless)
Linguistics (remember Professor Lakoff)
Political Science (super duper useless)
Did I forget anything?
In return make education completely free for the following classes/majors:
math
chemistry
biology
electrical engineering
computer science
physics
statisics
comparative religion (Christianity will win every time)
This way:
1) All indoctrination ends
2) The production of students that are assets to society is encouraged
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.