Committee approves 32% increase to UC student fees

Police arrested 14 protesters at a University of California Regents finance committee meeting at UCLA today.

The committee was debating, and later approved, a plan to raise student fees in the next calendar year. The full board of UC Regents is expected to approve the plan on Thursday. The first part of that increase would be in place January 2010 and the next hike would be in place in the fall.

Regents said the move is a necessary step to close part of an expected $1 billion funding cut this academic year and next. After the committee vote, UC President Mark Yudoff said while painful, the fee hikes will ensure University of California campuses keep providing a top-notch education. “I really don’t see us losing students. If you look at Michigan and Penn State, we’re not near at the high in terms of what’s called 'elsewhere tuition.' We’re taking care of the applicants that are most price sensitive, which tend to be the low income ones.”

The same committee recommended expansion of a program that pays the fees of students whose families make less than $70,000 yearly.

Hundreds of protesters, mostly UC students and employees from various UC campuses, descended on UCLA's Covel Commons where the regents meeting took place. Police said they arrested people who disrupted the meeting.

Outside the building some protesters threw water bottles and food at officers clad in riot gear. By that time police declared the protest an unlawful assembly and used batons and Tazers to try to clear protesters from the area. An observer with the National Lawyers Guild said an officer broke a protester's ankle with a baton.

Behind police barricades, freshman Christian Meitzenheimer held a sign that read, “Regents, Happy Thank-taking.” He said the fee hikes will likely force him to consider dropping out of UCLA and resuming his education at a California State University campus or a community college.

“They’re taking the money we don’t have," said Meitzenheimer. I’m from the Rampart area of Los Angeles. I went to Belmont High School, which is not one of the best high schools in Los Angeles, and I was fortunate enough to get here and get good grades. But I’m here paying everything by myself.”

UC administrators say those who hold the power of the purse, Sacramento lawmakers, should hear vigorous protests against budget cuts. To that end the UC Regents committee approved a request for a nearly $1 billion increase in the UC budget from state elected officials as the budget process for the next fiscal year moves forward in the next several months.

President Yudoff said there’s “light at the end of the tunnel.”