A new proposal in the works at the UC Office of the President could fundamentally transform the university and dump in the laps of students a task that is the responsibility of the state.

Under the plan, to be put before the regents in March, a portion of campus-based fees like the student self-assessed construction referenda and activity fees would be required to cover financial aid. Currently, only the systemwide tuition fees have a return-to-aid component.

The new policy, if approved, would drain coffers of student governments and require students to bear the burden of paying for services the university and lawmakers are responsible for providing.

If financial aid accounts are depleted, the answer is simple: University administrators must stop approving new campus fees. Whether they decide to or not, they must not go back now and demand a slice of the money from projects initiated and paid for by the students themselves.

Of course, the regents could always rethink their newly approved budget. Despite their intentions to send a third of the money raised from tuition hikes to aid, the regents voted in the fall to reduce this to 25 percent for next year’s increases. At the time, the UC Students Association argued that the amount would not be sufficient to cover the necessary financial aid, but both regents and administrators dismissed the argument.

Clearly, the current proposal suggests that UCSA was correct and that administrators are attempting to raid student governments to backfill the gap.