UC, CSU Leaders Consider Raising Fees

Well, here it goes again (Please see the LA Times article below). Read carefully. Look at the cumulative sum of the increases since around 2002 (within last five years). Now ask yourself, what was the rate of inflation over that time that would justify an increase? Has your personal income gone up that much over five years? Has the Federal Government raised the amount of the subsidized Stafford and unsubsidized Stafford loans by any reasonable percentage to match the fee increases?

I think the predictions that the state of California is going to have to withdraw all subsidies for higher education is going to come true in the next 5-8 years. The state is bankrupt still, has a credit rating worse than a poorly run business, no one in Sacramento seems to care and K-12 advocates are far more vocal and get the largest share of the ever shrinking, and starving for money pie. The state will have no choice but to exit the higher education business and any tax increases, veiled or not, to keep it running have a snowball chance in *%$#@. When the subsidy is gone, it would not suprise me if UC is at least 85% of the cost of a private college and CSU is about 70%-75%. If you think the below is bad and or what has happened over the last five years is bad, wait until for D-Day when the subsify goes and the fees double or triple. I sure as *%$#@ would not want to be in college in CA now and nor would I want kids and have to look forward to paying their college bill. *%#@, even a tax deferred college account is not going to get you anywhere- the interest rate cannot even get close to the rate the fees are going up at the colleges.

CA- what a joke.
Regards Danny

UC, CSU Leaders Consider Raising Fees
School Officials to Vote Today
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 14, 2007 (CNS) - The cost of going to college at California universities could go up Wednesday when both the California State University Board of Trustees and University of California Board of Regents vote on proposed tuition hikes.

Undergraduates attending UC schools face a $435 fee increase for the 2007-2008 academic year, a bump of about 7 percent. That's in addition to a new $60 surcharge all undergraduate and graduate students will pay, bringing annual undergraduate fees to $7,347. Critics say the fee hikes are excessive since undergraduate fees in the UC system have gone up nearly 80 percent in five years, and the proposed increase would be the fifth in six years.

The UC Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on the proposal during its meeting at UCLA. The CSU Board of Trustees, meanwhile, will consider a 10 percent hike in university fees, raising annual undergraduate by $252 to $2,772 next academic year, and graduate fees by $312 to $3,414. In addition to tuition, students also pay campus-based fees that average $679. The CSU fee proposal would also be the fifth fee hike in six years. That hike has come under heavy fire from the California Faculty Association and some state lawmakers.

Opponents of the hike argue that student fees have increased 94 percent for CSU students since 2002 and, they say, CSU executives have received 23 percent pay hikes over that time while faculty have received raises of just 3.5 percent.

Members of the faculty association have been voting at CSU campuses across the state to authorize a possible strike if negotiations on a new four- year contract break down. The CFA wants a 4 percent raise for this year, retroactive to July 2006, plus a 2.65 percent increase for all faculty members now eligible for step raises.

The union also asked for a $5 million equity pay pool to address what it calls "salary inversion" -- the effect of new hires being brought in at starting salaries substantially higher than what is being paid to faculty with several years' experience in the CSU system. The administration offered a 4 percent raise and no step increase, or a 3 percent general pay raise plus the 2.65 percent step increases. The equity pay pool wasn't part of the CSU offer.

Further irritating the faculty union and legislators is another item on the CSU board's agenda -- a $103,000 payment to James Lyons, who stepped down in February as president Cal State Dominguez Hills.

"The idea that the trustees would vote for yet another sweetheart severance package, irrespective of all the public pressure against these practices, is unbelievable," said Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge. Portantino recently introduced a bill that would eliminate so-called "ghost professorships," in which executives are paid as professors but do not teach classes. The bill also would require the CSU board to change its current practice of omitting from its public meetings discussion of compensation beyond salary and housing that is included in executive contracts.