UC law, med students are hit where it hurts
Sacramento Bee 3/12/07
That's not the case anymore.
The spirit of the state's 1960s-era pledge for an affordable, accessible education has arguably been stretched for undergraduates. But state lawmakers, as well as UC system leaders, have abandoned the principle for students in professional schools.
"They looked and said, 'Oh, doctors do fine, business people do fine, and lawyers do fine,' " said Rex Perschbacher, dean of the UC Davis law school. "I think their mind-set was, 'They can bear a lot more of the costs of their education.' "
The feeling that students in professional schools could afford to pay more began in 1990 with an extra $376 annual fee tagged onto medical and law students. With total fees now around $25,000 -- not counting housing and books -- there's no exit from the spiral, Perschbacher said.
He's concerned that his students, facing six-figure debt, already are abandoning lower-paying legal jobs in the public sector and nonprofit fields. Others won't bother going to law school at all, he said.
Chris Urone, 25, a first-year UC Davis law student from Sacramento, says he'll graduate owing about $130,000.
He'd like to go for a lower-paying job in a field he's passionate about, such as advocating for animal rights or disabled people. But with so much debt, he doesn't want to "live like a student" for the rest of his life and will compete for a corporate job.
"The wall of fees," as Perschbacher calls the problem, did not gain much notice or sympathy while undergraduate fees soared during the recent state budget crisis.
On Wednesday, students are expected to protest before the governing boards for the UC system and California State University. UC regents and CSU trustees are scheduled to tentatively approve another undergraduate fee hike -- 7 percent and 10 percent, respectively -- for 2007-08.
Professional student fees are set to jump 7 percent to 10 percent in the UC system. CSU, which doesn't have law or medical schools, charges about $4,000 a year for a master's in business administration -- the same as other graduate programs, slightly higher than the undergraduate tuition.
The UC regents on Wednesday also are expected to discuss ways to moderate professional fee increases, although the fees are unlikely to slow down.
Instead of bragging about the lowest tuition in the country, UC regents now chase other top public universities, such as University of Virginia and University of Michigan, which cost about $35,000 a year for medical and law school.
Private schools, such as Harvard, Stanford and Yale, are hitting the $40,000 mark. University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento costs $33,000.
Christopher Edley, the dean of UC Berkeley's law school, is urging an even larger hike. He has asked regents to increase fees by 13 percent to help his school climb into the top five in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. It's eighth now. UC Davis is 34th.
He says an infusion of money would help decrease class sizes -- a key factor that goes into the magazine's rankings. And a higher ranking entails higher prestige.
Twenty years ago, UC fees ran about $1,500 a year for a bachelor's in English or a doctorate in medicine. Even though fees have more than quadrupled for undergrads, today's UC tuition of $6,800 -- not counting housing or books -- is still a relative bargain. Fees at CSU shot up from $680 to $3,200 since 1986 but still are among the lowest in the nation.
Professional school fees at UC, from veterinary to dental programs, jumped more than $10,000 from 2002 to 2005.
The fees were rising so fast and unexpectedly that UC Berkeley law student Mohammad Kashmiri led a class-action lawsuit in 2003 against the UC system for breach of contract. The students won, and 9,000 of them stand to get up to $5,000 in refunds. The university is appealing.
Several UC Davis law students interviewed last week said they don't have much choice about a career. It's a big firm or bust.
Courtney Vasquez, 22, a first-year law student from Thousand Oaks, estimates she'll finish with $75,000 in loans.
"It does kind of freak me out," she said. "I'm probably going to take the highest-paying job I can find."
Michele Zugnoni, 28, of Dublin, a second-year student, was facing $90,000 in loans before winning a full scholarship.
She wants to work in domestic violence and says she's one of the few who can afford to do so.
"Unfortunately, this is the way it is," she said.
UC Davis prides itself on public-interest work, steering students into internships helping farmworkers, prisoners and battered women. A wall in King Hall lists dozens of legal jobs in state government, from the water board to the tax board. The largest single employer of UC Davis law school graduates is the California attorney general's office.
To ease the path to government or nonprofit work, UC professional schools pump a portion of their fees into financial aid programs.
Emily Fisher, 34, works for a legal aid clinic in Chico, helping poor clients. She graduated from UC Davis law school in 2004 and chose the school in part because of a loan forgiveness program, which will eliminate her $70,000 debt after five years.
Fisher earns $37,000 a year.
"There's no way you can do it without some extra help," Fisher said.
Rising fees have enabled UC Davis to double its loan forgiveness program over the next year. About 65 students are participating in it. But with 200 students graduating each year, the dean fears a few more scholarships won't go far enough to counter the daunting prospect of loans.
"There was a virtue in having a low-cost educational opportunity in law that can't be replaced even if you have wonderful scholarship aid for some students," Perschbacher said, "because some people won't come, won't be able to take those risks and are going to lose out."