Fees would also rise for out-of-state students and for certain professional degrees: nursing, teacher education, journalism and public policy, depending on which campus the program is offered. “Tuition should be as low as possible and as predictable as possible,” UC President Janet Napolitano and regents Chairman Bruce Varner wrote in an opinion piece for the Sacramento Bee Thursday. The undergraduate tuition and fee increase would bring in $100 million each year, said Nathan Brostrom, UC’s chief financial officer, who blamed inflation — including UC’s growing pension needs and rising salaries — for the need to raise the price. Nearly a third of the increase would go to financial aid for low-income students, he said, noting that only 30 percent of undergraduates pay any tuition at all. Despite UC’s argument that measured, yearly hikes would help students by offering predictability, some student leaders, employees and politicians argued that any tuition hikes are unfair and harmful to families. “I am opposed to the threatened fee increases and will vote against them at the November meeting of the Board of Regents,” Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins — also a regent — said in a statement. “It is really unfortunate that this is being brought up,” he said, noting that UC has rejected student leaders’ alternative proposals, such as differential tuition by program — used at the University of Michigan, for example — or the idea of deferring tuition until the graduate is working. “Before you talk about raising tuition or threatening the state if it does not give you more money, get your own fiscal house in order,” said Todd Stenhouse, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME 3299, which represents UC’s lowest-paid workers. #SF #News #49ers
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 01:26:22 +0000
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