CSUN University News Clippings

UC looks at 9.3% fee increase

(April 30, 2009)

By Kelly Johnson Staff writer

The University of California system is considering a 9.3 percent increase in undergraduate student fees as one way of addressing a two-year, $437 million budget shortfall.

The UC Board of Regents will consider the $662 fee increase at its May 7 meeting, system officials announced Wednesday.

If approved, the systemwide fees for resident undergraduates would rise to $7,788 starting in the 2009-10 school year. Adding in miscellaneous fees charged by individual campuses, the average systemwide fees would total about $8,720, a news release said.

A 9.3 percent increase would generate an estimated $152 million in new revenue, the release said.

Federal stimulus funding and increases in the education tax credit would offset the higher fees for many students, UC officials said.

“The average Pell Grant is going up almost as much as our fee increase,” UC President Mark Yudof said in the release. “More than 81 percent of the families below $180,000 in household income won’t pay the increase as a result of the federal tax credit and the increased Pell Grants.”

About 33 percent of the increase, or $54.2 million, would be reserved for financial aid.

Eligible UC students with family incomes under $60,000 would have their fees fully covered, thanks to a new program approved in February. That program will use federal economic stimulus funds to cover the estimated $3 million cost in 2009-10 of providing those students with scholarships or grants from federal, state, private and UC sources.

About half of the system’s two-year $437 million shortfall comes from the cuts the state Legislature made in the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 fisccal years.

“The rest of the shortfall,” the release said, “comes from increases in employee health benefits, utilities and other inflationary costs and in unfunded enrollments.”

The UC system has already slashed millions from its budget. The Office of the President has reduced its work force by more than 600 and saved more than $60 million by eliminating positions and transferring some jobs to campuses where they can be performed more cost-effectively, the release said. Individual campuses have cut programs and held back on hiring new professors.

Yudof also is considering instituting employee furloughs and pay cuts, the release said.

Publication: Sacramento Business Journal