University of California may vary tuition by campus?

Should students at UC Riverside pay less than those in UCLA?

Leaders of the 10-campus University of California system are considering such questions as the state funding is gradually decreasing which caused higher tuition.

The supporter of undergraduate tuition to vary by campus say the change would raise funds the universities could share and consumer demand should play a bigger role in setting tuition. But opponents believe that it will harm the unified nature of UC system.

When they enact this new soultion to maintain the system with budget cuts, some of the UCs that are in high national college ranking will be affected, such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD.

While UC is debating, there are few universities in nation that have already established differential tuition for their campuses, such as University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said he would like the regents to set a midpoint for undergraduate tuition and allow campuses to range up to 25 percent above or below that. Such a plan would give campuses the flexibility and income they need but maintain a sense of a UC system and provide additional financial aid, he said.

California Dream Act?

Although the name of the bill is exactly the same as the federal legislation last year, it does not grant legal status to undocumented students. However, it does help them to pay for college.

This is from synopsis of the bill

          Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001-02 academic year, and who, if he or she is an alien without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit, is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University.

This bill would enact the California Dream Act of 2011.

This bill would provide that, on and after January 1, 2012, a student attending the California State University, the California Community Colleges, or the University of California who is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the provision described above would be eligible to receive a scholarship derived from non-state funds received, for the purpose of scholarships, by the segment at which he or she is a student.



There are two bills, AB 130 and AB 131. AB 130 allows many undocumented students who qualify for in-state tuition to apply for private scholarships and financial aid from the school.

AB 131 allows those students to apply for state grants, such as Cal grants.

The California Dream Act has passed the senate few times but it was vetoed by the former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. However the newly elected Jerry Brown promised to sign the bill during his campaign, so many believe that it will pass.

But is it really necessary?

The opponents believe that it will allow more illegal immigrants to take advantage of this loophole. They also believe that granting state funds to them while California is a huge economic crisis is not reasonable.

However, the supporters point out it will only benefit less than 1 percent of all California college enrollments. Therefore, they believe that if these students graduate with a college degree, masters or PhD, they will certainly contribute to our society.

If they were raised here and excelled in academics high enough to get into college, they deserve equal opportunity as the rest of students, regardless of their legal status.

University of California Berkeley, March 3^rd, 2001- 9:20pm 8 protesters who occupied a fourth floor ledge of Wheeler Hall for more than 7 hours, safely exited Wheeler Hall after hours of negotiation with administrators.

The protesters, chained to one another, were protesting budget cuts to the University of California.

The police were alerted when there were 9 students stepped out onto to ledge. They were able to reach one of the students and arrested him.

The University closed the Wheeler Hall; causing 26 classes to be canceled, impacting more than 1,000 students.

The administrators and the students were engaged in a long back and forth negotiation. the final results of the negotiations were that the protesters will receive notifications that their actions may have violated the student code of conduct and if repeated, such behavior will be subject to the conduct process.

Student protesters announced at around 8:30 PM, Thursday when their agreements were met, they decided to come out of th building. 

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/03/protesters-occupy-wheeler-hall-ledge/

Supreme Court upholds In-State Tuition for some Undocumented Students

The plaintiff, 42 students who graduated from UC and CSU challenged the AB540.

California Assembly Bill 540, which was passed 2001, grants in-state tuition for any students regardless of their citizenship as long as they have attended high school for three years in California.

The 42 college graduates, all of whom are U.S citizens who paid out-of-state tuition filed a formal request Feb. 14 to take their case Martinez et al. v. UC Board of Regents et al. before the Supreme Court.

The students claimed AB 540 violated the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which requires states to provide in-state tuition benefits to all U.S. citizens if such benefits are given to illegal immigrants. However, the California Supreme Court upheld AB 540 in November, overturning a previous decision.

It has been six years of petition and appeals and finally, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal that challenged AB540.

Michael Brady, a lawyer who represented the plaintiffs, said the ruling was not fair to U.S. citizens.

It is understandable for citizens to complaining about the fact that they pay more that the students who are not even citizens. However AB540 has benefitted three times more U.S citizens than undocumented students. There are little more than 200 students at UC who benefits from this bill and only around 600 people are potentially illegal.

 “We also are gratified that students who have attended and graduated from high school in California and who have achieved the academic accomplishments to qualify for UC will continue to have access to affordable higher education opportunities, irrespective of their immigration status,” said Charles Robinson, the UC’s general counsel and vice president for legal affairs, in a statement.

It’s a huge step toward giving full rights to all people who are contributing to our country, regardless of immigration status.

Tuition Increase Graph

The graphs above show how tuitions for UC and CSU have been increasing greatly.

 UC:  it has been skyrocketing since 2003. In the early 2000s, tuition for California residents resided along 4000 dollars, however within just 7 years; it is now almost tripled with a cost of $11,124!

CSU: Although CSU system is still one of the most affordable colleges in the nation, they were not exempt from this cruel tuition increase. The graph increased even more sharply than the UC. Their tuition stayed little above $1000 during late 1990s to 2000s, and now you are looking at a tuition quadrupled with outrageous cost of $4,884!

The tuitions for public colleges like all of the UC, CSU, and even community colleges are increasing as the state deficits are escalating.

Every time they raise the tuition, there are more students who give up their hopes to go to their dream college, not because of their grades but the cost. Every student, not just in California but in the whole nation has the right to pursue higher education regardless of their family income and legal status.

California will not be able to get out of this economic depression without providing an advanced and affordable education for their future leaders.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/increase-276647-percent-schools.html

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/students-275473-year-spring.html

UC Tuition Increase History

1856- California residents had received a tuition-free college education since the founding of the University of California in 1868

Feb 1, 1967 - A pending proposal to raise tuition fees in 22 stale- supported colleges in Texas Georgia's slate-supported schools held fees at the 1962 level until this academic ... He suggested a year at the University of California's nine campuses and at the 18-campus California State colleges

Oct 21, 1991 - UC campuses have already begun charging non-resident tuition fees to any new student who does not have legal residency under US immigration rules.

Jan 17, 1992, University of California Board of Regents overwhelmingly approved a 24 percent increase in student fees sought by Governor Pete Wilson. The board voted 20 to 1 to raise th yearly fees for resident undergraduate students by $550.

Dec 2002 - Nationally, several schools have adjusted tuition rates in January to make up for midyear budget reductions. The University of California and California State University systems approved midyear tuition increases in December 2002.

Mar 31, 2004, over the past 15 years, UC has taken $120 million in budget cuts before asking students to provide an additional $80 million in tuition increases, UC officials said. For the first time in school history, students' tuition made up a greater percentage of the budget that year

Nov 19, 2009 - On November 19, 2009, the UC Regents announced a 32% UC-wide raise in tuition. With an increase so large, the so-called public school system is now put to question of it's original goal of equal opportunity.

Nov 2010 - For the 2010-11 year, UC tuition and fees are $10302. The proposed 8 percent increase would bring that figure to $11126. In the CSU system, fees would jump from $4230 to $4865.

Resources:

www.turlockjournal.com/news/article/6533/

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61519854.html?dids=61519854:61519854&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+21%2C+1991&author=MARY+ANNE+PEREZ&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre1997+Fulltext)&desc=Illegals+Facing+a+Sharp+Rise+in+College+Fees+Tuition%3A+Some+counselors+are+telling+undocumented+immigrants+to+sign+up+for+any+classes+before+the+Jan.+1+deadline.&pqatl=google

http://nl.newsbank.com/nlsearch/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB71911B3ACDE39&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_c2766808-613c-5f7b-8b8b-508d4177c236.html

Will California Choose Education Over Money?

 “It’s kind of ironic,” said high school senior Paul Churgin. “The state is in trouble and education is first one to be attacked. Aren’t we supposed to be the future of California?”

The new democratic governor, Jerry Brown, proposed series of tax extension and spending cuts. Although these new proposals do not include further budget cuts on UC and CSU system, they will most likely raise the tuition.

According to some calculations, the UC system may have to increase tuition by 8 percent to 20 percent over the course of four consecutive years, if current patterns of state budget cuts and larger enrollments continue.

Three years ago, the UC system received $3.3 billion from the state, but after years of budget cuts and now Governor Brown’s recent $500 million cut, the 10 UC campuses will have to make up for $2.5 billion starting July 1. This will result in not only increased tuition for students but also the elimination of teachers and staff, as well as larger class sizes, and fewer classes offered. It will also inevitably cause a student protests and unrest.

Considering UC Regents already approved a 32 percent increase in tuition in the fall of 2009, the students now pay around $14,700, without rooms and board, books and many other fees. With students paying this much, there should not be any diminution of class size and teachers. That is the least the government can do for those who invested over120, 000 for their college education.

“I just plan on being in a mountain of debt when I get out” senior Travis Perez said satirically.

There are countless students, brilliant students who were forced to give up 4 year college due to it high tuition.

“My GPA was high enough to get into UC but it is just too expensive”, said senior Marcos Fernandez. “I am considering military options to pay for my tuition later”.

The CSU system is not exempt to this budget cut. The officials also announced that they would have to increase tuition by 32 percent if they lose $1 billion in state funds.

California is facing one of the biggest economic crises right now with total state debt of $290,855,041,516. The budget cuts on education might seem unavoidable.  However, the students in UC and CSU are the ones who will lead California in the future, and the high tuition has already become the biggest hindrance to higher education.

“Public education should be the last one to see the budget cuts”