University of California leaders hinted Wednesday that they
would approve student fee increases totaling 32 percent to battle a
budget crisis that is expected to last through 2011.
By Matt Krupnick, McClatchy News Service
SAN FRANCISCO
University of California leaders hinted Wednesday that they would approve student fee increases totaling 32 percent to battle a budget crisis that is expected to last through 2011.
The two-part increase, scheduled to come to a vote in November, was supported by several members of the Board of Regents, including Regent Eddie Island, who usually opposes fee increases.
“We are indeed at a point of crisis,” Island said during the meeting at University of California San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus. “I’ve gone to the side of necessity.”
The increases would include both a midyear fee hike in January and a larger one later in the year. By next August, undergraduates for the first time would pay more than $10,000 per year in systemwide fees.
The discussion came a day after California Finance Director Michael Genest told UC leaders the state would likely cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the university’s budget again next year.
Several regents and administrators said they were reluctant to raise fees but had no viable alternatives. The university is laying off nearly 2,000 employees and every campus is cutting millions from their budgets, said Patrick Lenz, UC’s vice president for budget matters.
“We’ve picked all that fruit,” he told reporters during a break from the meeting. The largest UC employee unions refused to accept furloughs that would have avoided the need for most layoffs, Lenz said.
Regents also expressed confidence in university system President Mark Yudof and asked union organizers to stop personal attacks against him.
Yudof also asked for help in weathering the state’s financial crisis.
His impassioned speech to the regents prompted a standing ovation from the group.
The university’s budget cuts and fee increases are due to problems with California’s state government, the former University of Texas chancellor said, calling California “dysfunctional” and an “unreliable partner.” Steep student-fee hikes appeared to be the only way to avoid slipping quality, Yudof said.
“What we cannot do is surrender to the greatest enemy of the University of California, which is mediocrity,” he said. “Mediocrity has a lot of allure to it. Believe me, we have a lot of room to descend.”
His remarks came after 14 protesters were arrested for disrupting the meeting.
The demonstrators, most or all of whom were UC employees, were handcuffed by UC police as they chanted, “Whose university? Our university,” and “Yudof. Layoff.” They were cited for trespassing and unlawful assembly and released, a university spokesman said.
The meeting reconvened a few minutes after the arrests in front of a largely empty room.
Yudof, who took office last year, and his wife have been confronted at least twice at home by union leaders in recent weeks. Unions also orchestrated a no-confidence vote against the president, although Regent Russell Gould – the board chairman – noted that the vote included just 10,000 of UC’s 170,000 employees.
“There’s a reality here that we have to make hard decisions,” Gould said. “We are asking President Yudof to make hard decisions on our behalf.”
