UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ‘mdash; It’s budget season, and this weekend 35 UCSD student delegates will travel to the University of California Student Association’s annual Student Lobby Conference in Sacramento to rally for the College Affordability Act ‘mdash; a five-year fixed tuition plan that would be included in the Nov. 2009 general election.
It’s no doubt that the University of California’s funding has endured quite the beating this year, and the College Affordability Act ‘mdash; a proposal that would freeze tuition for undergraduate students at the University of California and California State University ‘mdash; is a tempting opportunity to stop increases in student fees for the next five years. Not only would students finally stop worrying about creeping increases as scholarships and aid seem to dissolve before their eyes, the proposal would also limit fee increases to no more than the annual percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index. It all sounds too simple. And it is.
In terms of fiscal aid, the act would earn revenue by implementing a 1 percent tax on incomes exceeding $1 million. Sixty percent of this tax ‘mdash; roughly $1.2 billion ‘mdash; would go toward the University of California and California State University systems and the remaining 40 percent would be available for general state purposes. The $1.2 billion would then be split evenly between the two state systems so that the University of California would receive $60 million annually to distribute to its 10 campuses. That makes $6 million for each one.
Ignoring the fact that this act would throw another financial burden onto the back of the same citizens whose taxes already solely fund our state’s mental health services program, it’s likely that ‘mdash; considering each campuses’ current infrastructure ‘mdash; a mere $6 million per year would leave little flexibility to maintain existing programs and confront urgent financial issues.
For the 2007?08 academic year, UCSD’s resident undergraduate fees were $8,062 per student ‘mdash; only a fraction of the approximate $23,000 in total cost to attend college. And while fee increases during our current budget crunch shouldn’t be taken lightly, simply forcing an umbrella freeze on each campus and offering a set sum for current programs and emergencies overlooks both the individual needs of each UC campus and limits their ability to tailor their budgets themselves. That doesn’t necessarily mean that each campus should allow for over $6 million in fee increases each year, rather, they should carefully consider what’s necessary to sustain already-existing programs that enrich the college experience.
‘ The good news: Because the UC Board of Regents is bound by the State Constitution ‘mdash; not the statute ‘mdash; it could reject the fee freeze by resolution and pass the entire $1.2 billion on to the California State University. If the UC regents want some elbow room to realistically maintain the programs that make the University of California such a successful institution and deal with unforeseen financial disasters (which seem to be quite common lately) they should do just that.
Readers can contact Alyssa Bereznak at [email protected].