 "Photo: Evan Andrews")
Many call the prospect of attending college and attaining some form of higher education a "golden opportunity." Well, such an opportunity in the Golden State will cost you. On Thursday, the University of California Board of Regents approved raising undergraduate fees 32 percent by next fall.
"It's difficult to sympathize with the Regents because they don't really listen to student concerns," said Nathan Houle, a senior English major at UC Santa Barbara. "I can understand they have to fill the budget gaps, but it's unfortunate when they are forced to do so because of their own mismanagement and at the expense of the students in this public education system."
The reasoning is simple: California is $68.5 billion in debt, and education is not cheap, so the 10-campus system's state funding has decreased. The system president, Mark Yudof, said that the state funding per student is half of what it was in 1990.
While I understand the logic of the decision, California is shooting itself in the foot by taking from education to close the budget gap. More baffling is the insignificance of the savings on the total debt. The cuts will save the state $813 million, but that is only 1.2 percent of the state debt.
The future of America is in its youth and their education. If students cannot access high-quality education, who will fix the financial problems of the nation?
The system has seen major reductions: 1,900 employees have been laid off, 3,800 positions cut and the hiring of 1,600 new positions, mostly faculty, suspended.
"There's significantly fewer classes and sections being offered," Houle said. "It's really difficult to get the classes you need to graduate and many people have spent a lot of time getting all the credits needed for various minors and their minors are being cut so they're left out in the cold."
The University of California system is one of the nation's best, boasting six schools in the Top 50 of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. The Berkeley campus headlines the group at No. 21; the Los Angeles campus follows closely at No. 24, and the San Diego, Davis, Santa Barbara and Irvine campuses rank 35, 42, 42, and 46 respectively.
Recent budget cuts raise the question, "is it possible for these prestigious and highly ranked universities to maintain their excellence in the years to come? And, if so, will anyone be able to afford attendance?"
Student protesting began with a "walk-out" on Sept. 24, in which faculty were the main proponents. On Oct. 24, a statewide meeting was held and all public education institutions, not just the UC system, were invited. There have been multiple protests and demonstrations across the state since the mobilization, making national news this past week.
At the Berkeley campus, 41 students were arrested Friday while staying in a campus building. The Santa Cruz campus had an administrative building takeover that lasted the weekend, until the students "voluntarily" left at the urging of police officers. It should be noted that arrest was threatened if the students did not leave, the crowd outside the building was pushed by riot control and several students were clubbed in the chest. One faculty bystander was injured.
"Although the administration did not take the students' demands seriously, the students consider this a victory because students weren't arrested, no one was seriously injured and students will still be able to organize," said Erin Ellison, a media contact for the student protestors at UC Santa Cruz.
Outside the UC system, the library at the California State University at Fresno was occupied past closing time Friday to protest the reduced hours of operation caused by the budget cuts.
"The general idea is to defend public education and keep it available to everyone," Ellison said, "and them raising the tuition 32 percent is more than many of us can bear. Going to Kerr Hall was an attempt for students to send a message to the top administrators and show them the faces of the students who won't be there next fall."
Academics have been hurt, course sections have been cut and majors dropped at an attempt to alleviate the strain after a 20 percent budget decrease in state funding for the system. At the UC Santa Barbara campus for example, 1,600 people rallied to support a sports and exercise minor that faces termination.
As schools continue to report record size freshman classes across the nation, California's debt is catching up to them at the worst possible time.
A 2007 report from the Public Policy Institute of California said that state's workforce would not be prepared for the job load in the future.
The report estimates that in 2020, 39 percent of the jobs in the Golden State will require a college degree. The problem is the same report claims only 33 percent of the working force would have a degree by the end of the coming decade.
Keep in mind that the report was published before the latest cuts to education. In one of the nation's leading states in many categories surrounding the workforce, quality labor is only going to become harder to come by if the legs of the higher education system are cut out from under it.
While we may complain about multiple tests in a week or an especially tedious project, be thankful. Aggies receive some of the finest education in the world, and we have avoided major setbacks to the high quality of our academics, for now.
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