Proposed UC, CSU fee hikes resisted
San Bernardino Sun 2/14/07
"I have to do everything on my own," says Biggs.
It's 9 a.m. on Saturday, and she's done with the morning shift at Starbucks Coffee, where she holds one of her two jobs. She says she works 50 hours a week.
"My parents don't pay for school. & They just want me to be independent," she said.
With the governor's budget proposal last month calling for fee hikes at the California State University and University of California systems for the fifth time in six years, student leaders say they've had enough.
They say they will spend the budget season fighting the governor's plan, which proposes raising undergraduate fees by 10 percent in the CSU system and by 7 percent in the UC system.
For many students, the cost of education is a growing burden, causing them to take out thousands of dollars in loans or, in more extreme cases, drop out or switch schools.
"The CSU is supposed to be the people's university, but we can't serve the people when the university's not affordable or accessible," said Nadir Vissanjy, chairman of the California State Student Association.
"The students are disheartened," he said.
Administrators say fee increases have been necessary to make up a budget shortfall caused by decreased per-student funding from the state over the years.
They note that at $2,520 and $6,141 a year respectively, fees at the CSU and UC systems are still cheaper than comparable institutions. The state also doles out "Cal Grants," which do not have to be repaid, to help needy students cover fees.
Regardless of why fees have shot up by more than 75 percent at the state's public university systems since the 2001-02 school year, students say the price of education is changing the way they live their day-to-day lives.
Fees
Biggs attended Cal State San Bernardino for one quarter after high school before enrolling in a community college because it cost less.
She says she thinks she could have gotten a Cal Grant to cover CSU fees if she had finished the application for the money. But she says she found the paperwork confusing and missed the deadline to submit it.
Biggs lives in Loma Linda with her brother and her mother, who makes about $70,000 a year. That would put the family of three over the income cap of $66,500 that would have guaranteed Biggs a grant this year if she were still at Cal State San Bernardino.
In some ways, it's middle-class students who are hurt the most by rising fees, says Vissanjy. Their family income is often too high to be eligible for a Cal Grant, but too low for them to pay the cost of fees up front, he said.
He added that many students who could qualify for financial aid are deterred from applying by a lack of understanding about the process.
CSU and UC students who qualify for the Cal Grant program can receive a Cal Grant A, which covers fees for four years, or a Cal Grant B, which provides a $1,551 stipend each year for expenses such as books. The Cal Grant B also covers fees after the first year of college.
The Cal Grant dollars to which public school students are entitled have risen along with the fee increases, says Carole Durante, spokeswoman for the California Student Aid Commission.
Even so, the program's income ceilings, which rise with the cost of living, are too low, says Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto. To qualify for a Cal Grant B, a family of six must take in $45,900 or less a year. The Cal Grant A cap for the same family is $83,600.
Though students whose families have a higher income can compete for other grants, there's no guarantee they'll receive money.
"If they raise tuition, they're just going to drop out because they don't want to get loans," Carter said.
"It's just a very scary thing because we have more Latinos and more African-Americans going to college now," she added. "(Many) are the first in their families to go to college, and then to raise fees - I'm afraid a lot of the families won't be able to afford it."
Cost of living and loans
Further straining the finances of many CSU and UC students is the cost of living, which generally makes up a larger share of students' expenses.
According to a California Postsecondary Education Commission report, costs not related to fees rose 21 percent in the CSU system and 32 percent in the UC system in the decade between 1994-95 and 2003-04.
The average debt for CSU and UC undergraduates starting to pay off federal Stafford loans rose by about $5,000 or more between 1995-96 and 2003-04, the report stated.
"I am $12,000 in debt," said Vissanjy, who is a fifth-year international business student at Sonoma State.
"When I graduate, I'm going to have around $15,000 in debt for student loans," said Bill Schiebler, a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara sociology student who chairs the UC Students Association.
The financial struggle of students aside, the growing price tag of public higher education in California is changing what college means to students, Vissanjy and Schiebler say.
College is supposed to be a time for learning and growing, but students bogged down by jobs and paperwork have less time for classes and for activities such as volunteering, Schiebler said.
Students who were looking forward to independence have to instead rely on parents for support or tie their future to a pile of debt, Vissanjy said.
And for some, like Biggs, the price of independence is finding an alternate route to education.
Going up
Fees at the California State University and University of California systems have risen steadily over the years.
The budget proposal the governor released calls for fee hikes next fall of 10 percent in the CSU system and 7 percent in the UC system.
CSU system
2001-2002: $1,428
2002-2003: $1,507
2003-2004: $2,046
2004-2005: $2,334
2005-2006: $2,520
2006-2007: $2,520
UC system
2001-2002: $3,429
2002-2003: $3,834
2003-2004: $4,984
2004-2005: $5,684
2005-2006: $6,141
2006-2007: $6,141