UC System To See Fee Increases Once Again
Posted by Bridget Kwok on Nov 21, 2009 - 10:56:09 AM
WESTWOOD—Angry demonstrators rallied at UCLA’s Covel Commons
on November 18, interrupting a presentation given by UC President Mark Yudof
regarding the budget cuts and fee increase proposal—raising fees by 32 percent—that
the University of California campuses will face in two phases beginning in
January 2010.
Photo by Bridget Kwok
The UC system has experienced a serious budget cut in the last year, causing
many campuses to layoff instructors, cut classes out of their schedules and
increase tuition for the fall quarter of 2009; the budget cut had already
frustrated many students, parents and faculty members of the UC system and now
University of California students can expect to see two more waves of fee
increases to come their way.
A University of California Board of Regents committee today approved fee hikes
which will increase in two different phases. The first will come in
January, a mid-year tuition increase of $585. The next increase will take
place in the in fall of 2010, the next school year, with an increase of $1,344.
This increase will raise UC education fees to $10,302, plus about $1,000 in UC
campus charges, plus an estimated additional $16,000 for room and board and
books—making fees comparable to those of the private school system.
When asked how he felt about the fee increases, UCLA senior, Bryan Yip told
Canyon News, “It doesn’t affect me much since I’m graduating but I have a
sister probably coming into the UC system. [The increase] will be a
bigger strain for my parents because of the economic downturn.”
Shortly after the board meeting began, 14 protestors interrupted Yudof’s
presentation. Those protestors were handcuffed and escorted off the
premises by UC police and were cited for misdemeanor unlawful assembly.
Outside of the hall meeting, about 300 students and union activists gathered in
protest of the tuition increases. Those demonstrators were met by UC
police in riot gear and non-lethal weapons as they pushed the demonstrators
away from the hall door.
