STUDENTS at the University of California are getting a two-year reprieve from threats of tuition increases, as a result of a large infusion of new state funds to the 10-campus university system in Governor Jerry Brown’s spending plan proposal.
UC officials confirmed the two-year freeze of tuition for state residents as the “highlight” of an agreement between Gov. Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano, after months of negotiations and political lobbying to avoid what might have been hikes as high as 5 percent, in each of the next five years. In-state students now pay about $12,200 a year for basic system-wide tuition and fees, not including room and board and some campus charges—triple what the tuition was in 2002.
However, out-of-state students, whose rising numbers are worrying legislators and families, are expected to face 5 percent tuition increases to about $36,900 next year, and even further hikes in the future, officials said. And graduate students from California and elsewhere in some professional programs, such as medicine and business administration, will see increases that vary by campuses and discipline.
Starting in the 2017-18 school year, UC tuition for California residents will once again rise in Gov. Brown’s formula that will involving the general inflation rate, but will be capped at 5 percent annually.
“I think we’ve reached a very good agreement from the perspective of the university and for California,” said Napolitano. “The pact will produce a tremendous period of predictable tuition for California residents and will provide the additional financial resources we so sorely needed.”
California’s much improved fiscal situation helped break the deadlock between two veteran politicians, Brown and Napolitano, who are both well-experienced in government. Brown is serving his fourth and final term as California governor, while Napolitano was the former governor of Arizona and US Secretary of Homeland Security.
The two formed an unusual two-person committee in January to privately examine the UC’s spending and revenues. The meetings seemed to be productive, reaching an agreement and going “from far apart places, we have come a very long way,” Napolitano said.
Student protests against the supposed tuition increases will likely become cheers, if the deal holds up through reviews by the Legislature and the UC board of regents.
Previously, Brown had proposed a 4 percent increase—about $119 million—in state funding to UC next year, but only if UC maintained the current tuition freeze into a fourth year. A UC regent and proponent for public education, he has long criticized what he considers high administrative salaries and light teaching loads for some faculty.
In the agreement, the UC promises to tackle some of Brown’s other causes, Napolitano said—including increasing the number of transfer students, bolstering summer school and high-demand online classes, and getting rid of overly-complicated requirements that slow students’ paths to graduation.
In addition, the system will receive 4% increases in state funding in each of the next four years, for a cumulative total of $507 million. In a deal sweetener, the UC is expected to receive a total of $436 million over three years from the state’s rainy day surplus, to help pay pension obligations—in exchange, the UC will work on further changes in its retirement plans that likely will put a cap on or reduce some potential benefits for new hires.
That extra money, in addition to about $50 million for deferred maintenance and energy efficiency projects, surpassed UC’s position that it needed an extra $100 million. As a result, Napolitano said, campuses will be able to add course offerings and hire more faculty.
The plan will likely faces changes as it goes through the state Legislature in the coming weeks.
The number of enrolled undergraduates in the state, for instance, remains unsettled so far. Napolitano said in March that enrollment for in-state students would not grow without more state funds devoted to it, and Brown’s plan does not specifically set aside money for that increase.
Also, Napolitano previously said that the ranks of undergraduates from other states and countries would not rise any further at UC Berkeley and UCLA, where their share of current freshmen is about 30%. UC leaders also say the extra $23,000 the nonresidents pay on top of basic tuition helps keep the university afloat, not meant to displace.
The previous plan approved by the board of regents in November called for tuition increases by as much as $612 in 2015-16, up to $12,804, and as high as $15,564 in 2019-20. That triggered protests on campuses and at the regents’ meetings. Officials last fall complained that the $2.64 billion in state general revenue funds for UC this year is $460 million below what it was seven years ago.
(Allyson Escobar/AJPress with reports from Los Angeles Times
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(LA Weekend May 16-19, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
