UCI students shy away from tuition increases

Deirdre Newman

Many students who stuck around the campus during the first week of

winter break on Tuesday said they were not aware of the fee hikes

imposed by the University of California on Monday.

When they learned about the $135-per-quarter student fee increase

that will start in January, they greeted the news with the same

disdain as taking their finals.

“I feel like it kind of sucks for students who want an education

after high school,” said 21-year-old senior Jocelynn Garcia, who

works in the information booth at the school’s Student Center. “The

tuition is hard enough now for a lot of people.”

The UC Regents approved the increase in response to Gov. Gray

Davis’ proposal in early December to cut $74 million from the UC

System. The fee increase, in addition to other increases in fees for

certain professional students, will offset a $19-million unallocated

reduction included in the $74-million cut.

Manuel Gomez, vice chancellor of student affairs, said that while

raising fees is a painful measure, it is necessary to counteract the

drastic cuts from the state and to help students who rely on

financial aid.

“This increase is necessary to preserve the high quality of

education we provide,” Gomez said. “Because one third of this fee

increase will be returned to financial aid, we are trying to keep

students with financial need from being too heavily burdened.”

Many students, though, said they feel like they are already paying

a lot to attend UCI.

“I work two jobs already,” sophomore Brianna Adams, 19, said.

She said she would prefer that any fee increase go to the

lecturers, who went on strike earlier this fall.

“If they said they need more money for the [lecturers], that would

be OK,” Adams said. “We write out a lot of checks for the UC Regents,

so I wonder where that’s going.”

And foreign students, who already pay more than their California

peers, said it would be another financial challenge to deal with.

“It will be quite difficult for us because we’re already paying

more than $5,000 per quarter,” said Nitin Rekhi, 24, a graduate

student from India.