State university fee hikes are a test many families can’t pass

The budget crisis afflicting California State University could not have come at a worse time for Berenice Vite and Rafael Curiel, whose son Alonso is a sophomore at Cal State Long Beach. As the university was imposing a 32% student fee hike this year, Curiel underwent two shoulder surgeries and lost his job at a medical equipment firm.

The family has missed three house payments to scrape together tuition to continue educating their son, who does not qualify for financial aid. They are frustrated and worried, and they believe that their voices have not been heard as fast-moving decisions have been made to raise fees, cut enrollment and eliminate programs.

“All of these things are coming at the same time, and I’m really concerned,” said Vite, 46, an instructional aide for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “I was raised learning about the importance of education, and I want my children to be educated. But we don’t know if we’re going to have a house or not.”

Vite and Curiel echo the voices of families throughout the state who are being severely tested by the budget cuts at the Cal State, University of California and community college systems.

The fee increases, as well as mandatory staff and faculty furloughs, steep reductions in enrollment (40,000 otherwise eligible students will be turned away in the next two years at Cal State) and elimination of programs and majors have spurred student and faculty protests on many campuses.

But now there is an emerging movement of parents who are speaking out and assuming a bigger advocacy role.

Time for protest

Emma Hernandez, 56, took a page from her younger days supporting the United Farm Workers when she attended a recent rally in front of the governor’s downtown Los Angeles office to protest the cuts. Her family is using the equity in its home to help pay tuition for son Tomas Diaz, 22, who attends Cal State Long Beach, and daughter Sonja Diaz, 24, who attends UCLA’s graduate school of public policy.

Hernandez’s youngest, Cerena Diaz, 17, an Alhambra High senior with a 4.4 GPA, wants to attend UC Berkeley. Hernandez, a retired program coordinator with the L.A. housing authority who is disabled, isn’t sure if she and her husband will be able to afford the tuition.

“She tells me, ‘Mom, I’m reading about the budget cuts and the enrollment cuts, and I’m not going to get in,’ ” said Hernandez. The former migrant worker said she and other parents should be role models for the younger generation. “I think it’s so important that people get up there and start talking. I feel like the university and state leaders have let us down.”

Average undergraduate fees at Cal State rose this school year to nearly $4,900, not counting books, transportation and housing costs, which can add $10,000 more. Basic undergraduate fees at UC next fall will be about $10,302 a year, with about $1,000 in additional campus-based charges; and room, board and books could add $16,000 more. Community colleges increased fees 30% from $20 to $26 per credit.

Critics of the fee hikes fear that more low-income students will be shut out, but middle-income families who don’t qualify for need-based financial aid say they are being equally squeezed. Curiel and Vite are awaiting word on their application for a mortgage modification. They are reluctant to saddle Alonso, a pre-nursing major, with student loans. Meanwhile, the couple are waiting to find out if they can make installment payments for spring fees. A payment is due this week.

Bob Combs, president of the parent advisory council at Cal State Chico, is organizing a campaign to contact state lawmakers.

“We elect these officials, we donate money and we are the voice of our children,” said Combs, a real estate agent. “If one of us is calling an Assembly member or Congress person, we’re certainly much stronger if 10 of us are calling.”

Looking out of state

Combs’ son is a junior at Chico. But with that campus and others tightening acceptance criteria, he fears that his daughter, a high school senior with a 3.2 GPA, will not be admitted.

The family is considering out-of-state schools, including the University of Nevada, Reno, which offers to residents of California and other Western states a tuition discount that compares favorably to Cal State fees.

“The reason California’s public higher education system has been so successful is that it provided a good education for a reasonable price, but that is changing,” said Combs.

Steve Maples, director of admissions at the University of Nevada, Reno, said increasing numbers of California students are taking advantage of his school’s tuition break; 200 enrolled in the fall and that number is likely is to increase with the budget crisis.

“It’s certainly an unfortunate situation in California,” said Maples. “I hate to use the word ‘benefit,’ but if it leads more qualified students our way, it will be something that helps our university.”

That is the kind of news that Ken Stone dreads hearing. President of the Cal State University Alumni Council and father of three Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students, Stone has been working to create a new alumni website and Facebook group to help alumni, parents and students share information.

“There are things we can do at a grass-roots level, like talking with friends and neighbors about the threat to higher education, and we want to make sure we can talk from a knowledgeable base,” said Stone, who is vice president and director of sales and marketing for a national architectural and engineering firm.

His biggest concern is the rollback of access to the university. Both he and his wife, Jeanne, who teaches at UC Irvine, are Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduates.

“Tens of thousands of students who want to get an education and contribute to the California economy are being told no,” said Stone. “If they go to school in another state, ultimately that’s where they’re going to end up entering the workforce. All Californians should find that unacceptable.”

Thrown off course

Pamela Anderson is heartbroken by the distress the budget cuts are inflicting on her daughters. Erica, 22, a psychology major at Fresno State, was due to graduate in May -- until three mandatory classes were cut.

“She is devastated that she will have to spend another year in school,” said Anderson, a member of the campus parent group. Daughter Leslie, 20, a community college student, wants to transfer to San Francisco State or San Diego State, two Cal State campuses that will be exceptionally hard to get into.

Meanwhile, Anderson’s income as a senior computer analyst for Fresno County Superior Court disqualifies the family from financial aid, so she is struggling to pay not only tuition but an estimated $1,500 to $2,000 for books for next semester alone.

“It is putting the whole family through pain,” she said.

Some parents are not only protesting but also bolstering fundraising efforts and giving from their own pockets to help hard-hit campuses.

Officials in the UC system are appealing to parents and alumni to make donations and lobby the governor and state lawmakers.

Howard and Jill Singer have opened their checkbook to support the career services office and programs serving disabled and foster students at San Diego State. Singer, 59, an executive at IBM who lives in Laguna Hills, also got his company to provide a matching grant for computer equipment.

The foster program is dear to them, he said, because the couple’s foster son, Joel, 17, a high school senior, wants to enroll there. The Singers are incensed by cost-cutting measures on campuses, such as staff and faculty furloughs that mean less classroom time for daughter Jaclyn, 20, a journalism major.

They spoke at a recent campus rally about the issue.

“Our students aren’t just competing against other students in the community but from all over the world,” Howard Singer said. “Do you think in other states and countries students are only getting 80% of an education? I don’t think parents realize yet the impact these budget cuts are going to have on their children. Many parents can’t open up their wallets, but they can bombard the governor and legislators.”

carla.rivera@latimes.com