Higher UC, CSU tuition sure to follow deep cuts
San Francisco Chronicle June 29, 2011 04:00 AM
This article appeared on page A - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle
With the certainty of deep cuts to the University of California and California State University in the new state budget - each by $650 million - comes another certainty: higher tuition to make up the difference.
"Cuts of this magnitude inevitably will drive up tuition for public university students and their families," UC spokesman Steve Montiel said Tuesday, providing a grim forecast just weeks before an 8 percent tuition hike kicks in that will bring tuition at UC's nine undergraduate campuses to $11,124 - or $12,150 when mandatory campus fees are included.
UC has predicted a substantial tuition increase on top of that if forced to absorb such a cut in the 2011-12 school year. Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to sign the budget by the end of the week.
At CSU, the trustees are tossing around the possibility of raising tuition 15 percent for next spring, which they could vote on as early as July 12. CSU students already face a 15 percent tuition hike this fall, bringing the price to nearly $6,000 with mandatory campus fees.
Some students don't even call the increases "tuition" anymore, but tax increases. They say state lawmakers are deceptive in claiming to have passed the budget without raising taxes.
"Every time we raise taxes on students, the Legislature is off the hook - because we pay the tax, but they don't make that clear," said Steve Dixon, a Sacramento State University graduate student in economics who serves on the CSU Board of Trustees.
At UC, the gradual shift from state to student support suggests the public university is becoming privatized.
"It is fair to begin wondering whether it is appropriate to continue calling the University of California a public university system," said Alfredo Mireles, a UCSF nursing student and member of UC's Board of Regents.
For the first time this fall, UC expects to take in more from tuition than state funding.
"The abandonment of state support of public universities creates some big problems, and, ultimately, these problems have an impact on everyone in our society," UC President Mark Yudof told fellow lawyers last month in San Francisco.
He warned that some university departments with ties to lucrative donors - engineering or business - will prosper at the expense of, say, the English department or libraries.
Meanwhile, the UC Student Association is urging students to tell Brown not to sign the budget. Although the governor vetoed lawmakers' last attempt at a budget two weeks ago, that is unlikely now as this one was crafted with his approval.
UC students have also joined CSU students to push for a change in state law to force lawmakers and university leaders to consult with students 90 days before announcing a tuition increase, and to analyze its impact.
"We say it forces the conversation to happen in public, and forces them to justify fee increases," said Chris Chavez, president of the California State Student Association.
"Cuts of this magnitude inevitably will drive up tuition for public university students and their families," UC spokesman Steve Montiel said Tuesday, providing a grim forecast just weeks before an 8 percent tuition hike kicks in that will bring tuition at UC's nine undergraduate campuses to $11,124 - or $12,150 when mandatory campus fees are included.
UC has predicted a substantial tuition increase on top of that if forced to absorb such a cut in the 2011-12 school year. Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to sign the budget by the end of the week.
At CSU, the trustees are tossing around the possibility of raising tuition 15 percent for next spring, which they could vote on as early as July 12. CSU students already face a 15 percent tuition hike this fall, bringing the price to nearly $6,000 with mandatory campus fees.
Some students don't even call the increases "tuition" anymore, but tax increases. They say state lawmakers are deceptive in claiming to have passed the budget without raising taxes.
"Every time we raise taxes on students, the Legislature is off the hook - because we pay the tax, but they don't make that clear," said Steve Dixon, a Sacramento State University graduate student in economics who serves on the CSU Board of Trustees.
At UC, the gradual shift from state to student support suggests the public university is becoming privatized.
"It is fair to begin wondering whether it is appropriate to continue calling the University of California a public university system," said Alfredo Mireles, a UCSF nursing student and member of UC's Board of Regents.
For the first time this fall, UC expects to take in more from tuition than state funding.
"The abandonment of state support of public universities creates some big problems, and, ultimately, these problems have an impact on everyone in our society," UC President Mark Yudof told fellow lawyers last month in San Francisco.
He warned that some university departments with ties to lucrative donors - engineering or business - will prosper at the expense of, say, the English department or libraries.
Meanwhile, the UC Student Association is urging students to tell Brown not to sign the budget. Although the governor vetoed lawmakers' last attempt at a budget two weeks ago, that is unlikely now as this one was crafted with his approval.
UC students have also joined CSU students to push for a change in state law to force lawmakers and university leaders to consult with students 90 days before announcing a tuition increase, and to analyze its impact.
"We say it forces the conversation to happen in public, and forces them to justify fee increases," said Chris Chavez, president of the California State Student Association.
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