Protests at the UCs

While Princeton has mostly made it through the massive drop in its endowment without a big increase in tuition, students at six of the top 14 public universities are not as lucky. The University of California Regents announced a 32 percent increase in student fees at schools such as Berkeley and UCLA starting this year. The fee jump has resulted in protests at schools around the state.

An in-state undergraduate education at a UC school cost $8,352 at the begining of this year and an Out-of-state student would pay $30,022. (For comparison purposes, Princeton students pay $35,340.) The fee hike includes a mid-year fee increase of $585 due in January 2010. Undergraduate in-state fees are expected to be $10,302 next year. The Regents have promised increased financial aid to help low income students meet the increased costs.

The Regents argue that the fee increases are needed to cover the state budget cuts, which now pays half the amount per student compared to 1990, and a UC budget gap of $535 million.

Students retort that they can't cover such a steep increase in tuition, and are protesting to make their point. On Wednesday at the Regents meeting at UCLA, 14 people, 12 of whom were students, were arrested. Today students at Berkeley and Santa Cruz occupied campus buildings and protests have occurred at Berkeley, Davis, San Diego, UCLA and Santa Cruz.