As the state budget crisis continues flapping its vengeful wings and public sectors from every corner of California brace for the inevitable impacts to services that result from funding cuts, UC administrators have responded in various ways: increasing student fees, suspending services, freezing executive pay, reshuffling administrative departments and even decreasing the number of students admitted to the 10-campus system.
At UCSD, however, the Student Affairs Office has indicated it will go one sketchy step further, combating the state’s financial neglect with a proposal to lasso a portion of student registration fees ‘mdash; meant to support services such as Student Health, Counseling and Psychological Services, the Career Services Center and the University Events Office, to name a few ‘mdash; and redistribute the money to academic components such as admissions, maintaining class availability, staff salaries and inflation adjustments.
But considering that registration fees are meant to be used to support student services that are complementary to the university’s academic mission (the UC Board of Regents separated the registration and educational fees in the 1970s for that specific purpose), the plan will only serve to harm students ‘mdash; yet another shocking insult to the very group the university is supposed to be serving.
The most disconcerting aspect of UCSD’s plan to funnel registration fees away from student services is the fact that nobody knows about it. The A.S. Council passed a resolution last night calling for university transparency, but let’s face it ‘mdash; resolutions go a whole lot of nowhere. The UC Planning and Budget Manual specifically states that ‘the use of university registration fee income be limited to support of student services and facilities’ and ‘current university policy requires that the university registration fee ‘hellip; be the primary funding source for certain student services concerned with student well-being and not related to instructional programs.’ Administrators are in essence breaking their own policy, and they’re going about it in the most shady way possible.
Although university operations have taken a hit with reductions in state funding, the registration fee is static: It’s a fixed fee that does not fluctuate because every student who attends the university must pay it. Registration fees were increased by 10 percent last year in response to student concerns that essential services such as mental-health support lacked funding.
It’s preposterous the university is now slipping those funds away from us, without making it a public move. If the university needed money for academic departments, that concern should have been raised through an alteration of educational fees, not by taking away our registration fees now; more importantly, students should be notified through e-mail, newsletter or TritonLink that this is even an issue.
The Registration Fee Advisory Committee ‘mdash; including many student representatives ‘mdash; is in the process of reviewing all services funded by registration fees, and is accounting for a possible cut of up to 15 percent. The final determination will be made in summer, when the university’s operating budget is finalized. RFAC is also debating whether to rank services or implement an across-the-board cut.
The committee will hold a public forum at a yet-to-be-determined date later this quarter to gauge student concerns. It’s essential that students come to this forum to demand that administrators leave our registration-fee-funded services intact. Otherwise, a dangerous precedent will be set, and student services will continue to diminish.