Fee hike outrages UC law students

 

By Terri Hardy --
Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Saturday, February 22, 2003

Charone Frankel, like many UC Davis law students, lives on a strict budget with no room for surprises.

So it was an unexpected blow when the University of California regents approved raising fees by $535 in the middle of the spring semester. "Where is this extra $500 supposed to come from?" Frankel wondered. "Selling our kidneys?"

Last week, members of UCD's Law Students Association sent a letter to UC President Richard Atkinson demanding the fees be reconsidered. The members are among a growing number of students across the UC system in "professional" programs such as law, medicine and dentistry who are angry about their hefty surprise fees passed in December.

In the letter, the Law Students Association contends that the increase violates a 1994 UC policy requiring that all professional fee revenue (with the exception of one-third set aside for financial aid) be kept within each school to maintain and enhance the quality of instruction. The most recent fee increase, however, is being used to help offset the entire university system's budget cuts.

UC is "victimizing the professional students by breaking this agreement," the letter states. A petition signed by 310 law students accompanied the letter.

Rex Perschbacher, dean of UCD's law school, said the midyear increases will ensure that no cuts will be made in the law school program -- at least during this fiscal year. However, he worries that not returning the fees directly to the school, as has been done in the past, could set a troublesome precedent.

"I would hope that any future professional fee increases could benefit the law school more directly -- and that we would have more control of them," Perschbacher said. "I don't know if I'll have that control or not."

Lavonne Luquis, a UC spokeswoman, said the regents' vote was not inconsistent with university policy to keep professional student fees at the professional schools.

"These fees are preserving the current level of programming," Luquis said. "Without the fee increases, there would have been cuts made to the program."

With the state facing a mammoth deficit, the UC Board of Regents took a pre-emptive action in December, hiking fees for all students as a way to offset cuts proposed by Gov. Gray Davis. Systemwide, fees were raised by $135 per quarter. Students in the professional schools also were assessed from $150 to $400 in additional fees this spring.

"It seems grossly unfair that professional school students pay a higher tuition than anyone else on campus, and then there's this large fee on top of that," said Ellen Schuster, a 23-year-old law student. "We're really up in arms."

Luquis said UC didn't consider different fee rates that UC students pay when making its decision. Instead, she said officials looked at fees charged by comparable schools outside UC and found that even with the increase, the system's fees were considerably lower.

Some UC schools have eased student sticker shock by offering additional financial aid for the midyear increase. Davis' law school, which has its own financial aid office, paid $300 of the $535 fee for those students who already get financial aid and offered loans for the remaining balance, said Hollis L. Kulwin, assistant dean for student affairs at the law school.

The veterinary and graduate management programs will offer aid, but the amount has not yet been decided, said Lora Bossio, UCD's director of financial aid, who oversees those two professional schools.

UC Berkeley's law school was able to provide additional funding for students who already qualify for financial help, but the amount varies based on the percentage of aid already received. Dennis Tominaga, director of financial aid for Berkeley's law school, said professional schools have varying amounts of resources that they can devote to financial aid. The law school, for instance, uses the one-third set aside from fees as well as interest generated from endowed funds.

No one is certain what amount of financial aid will be available for professional school students next year -- particularly since large fee increases are expected. The governor's proposed budget recommends an additional 25 percent hike.

At UC Davis, 90 percent of law school students receive some financial aid, and earning more money is difficult since American Bar Association guidelines limit the hours they can work.

That has Frankel worried. With both her parents unemployed, she lives entirely on financial aid.

"No one knows what we're going to be paying or how much financial aid we can depend upon," Frankel said. "It's pretty upsetting -- I just try and not think about it too much."

Adam Miller, executive director of the UC Student Association, said the increases are a hot-button topic for most students and one of his association's chief concerns this year. They plan to increase lobbying efforts to press lawmakers to look for different revenue sources, as well as student loan forgiveness programs.

Mo Kashmiri, a Berkeley law student and vice president of the university's Graduate Assembly, said raising fees is likely to weaken the pool of new students, including the number of minorities it can attract. UC has been able to compete with top-notch private universities for stellar students because of its low price; hefty increases makes UC "lose its edge," Kashmiri said.

"The whole point of a public university system is access to everyone," Kashmiri said. "If you raise fees to such an extent that you take that access away, then you might as well eliminate public universities."