October 12, 2009
by Jack Remson | Photo Editor
Jack Remson | Staff Writer
remsonj@imail.losrios.edu
City College students are taking things in stride as fee increases that would span the next three years are being proposed at the University of California.
“Some things you can’t do anything about,” student Michael Chambers says, although he won’t be paying UC prices. “You can come over (to City College) for lower division, and go to CSUS (California State University of Sacramento) to get a much better education.”
Nursing major Matthias Bernard doesn’t plan to transfer anytime soon, but says he is concerned about rising tuition rates.
“You gotta be scholastically very strong for scholarships,” Bernard says. “Otherwise, (the fees) go up every year.”
Mike Ramirez, a psychology major, plans to transfer in the next few years, and says he won’t have trouble affording it but is still concerned.
“I hate to see them go up,” Ramirez says. “Why are they going up? Do we know that yet?”
The University of California’s Web site cited a $1 billion “funding gap” from the state and inflation, and is taking other cost-cutting measures, including limiting freshman enrollment, along with considering the increases.
According to the UC Web site, the fee increases that are being proposed by the administration would include the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years.
In a press release that came out Oct. 1, UC President Mark Yudof explains why fee increases are necessary means to deal with the budgetary funding gap.
“Some people… contend that it would be easy to reach into some golden pot of reserves and find the money to forestall tuition increases,” Yudof says. “But there is no such pot. That is a myth—one that dies hard but a myth nonetheless.
The UC regents will meet in November to discuss the budget again.
“You gotta do what you have to,” says Ramirez. “If students really want it, they need to find a way to make it happen.
For more on the UC California fee increases go to http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/
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