UC Board Of Regents Postpones Tuition Increase Vote Until May

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Students and other critics who say the cost of education is already too high urged the University of California on Wednesday to reject a proposal that would raise tuition at its 10 campuses for the second consecutive year.

The UC Board of Regents was expected to vote later in the day on a proposed increase of $342, or 2.7 percent, in annual tuition and fees for the 2018-19 academic year.

That vote has been postponed until May.

If approved, the cost for California residents who currently pay $12,630 in tuition and fees a year would increase to $12,972.

Out-of-state students would pay an additional $978, or an increase of 3.5 percent, bringing their total for annual tuition and fees to $28,992. The regents approved a similar increase last January, the first increase since 2011.

Nearly two dozen students delivered impassioned pleas to the regents saying higher tuition puts too much burden on students already struggling to pay for their education. They urged the regents to reject the proposal or at least delay their vote to allow more time to lobby the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown for additional state funding.

UC Berkeley student Kylie Murdock told the regents meeting in San Francisco that she comes from a middle-class family, receives no financial aid and her parents constantly worry whether they can afford college for her and three other siblings.

"$342 may seem like a drop in the bucket," she told the regents, but the cost of education is becoming "no longer affordable or accessible."

Murdock and others directed comments to Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a UC regent and the front-runner to succeed Brown next year as governor. Murdock reminded Newsom that "students are a very large voting bloc."

Newsom opposes a tuition increase, saying it lets the Legislature off the hook and that it is "strategically short-sighted" to vote on a tuition increase before Sacramento begins budget discussions.

"I share the frustration of students and families who don't understand why another tuition increase is even up for consideration," Newsom said in a statement Wednesday.

UC officials say they were left with no choice but to propose an increase after Brown allotted less funding for California's public universities than expected in his 2018-19 budget proposal earlier this month.

Brown proposed a 3 percent increase in base funding for the UC system in his 2018-19 budget plan, down from a 4 percent increase in previous years. He also urged university officials to "live within their means."

The state budget will go through numerous revisions before a final vote is held in June.

UC President Janet Napolitano said the 3 percent increase is less than anticipated under a plan agreed to with the governor. She said in a statement that UC was committed to its plan to add 2,000 California undergraduates and 500 graduate students in fall 2018.

"The campuses have asked for this increase because they need it at a time when California undergraduate enrollment is at an all-time high," UC spokeswoman Claire Doan said. The additional revenue from tuition increases would go toward hiring more faculty members, creating new courses and funding additional mental health services, she said.

The UC Student Association said it has collected nearly 3,000 signatures in an online petition against the tuition hike, said student organizer Maxwell Lubin.

"For the UC to commit to a tuition hike before the UC budget is even set, makes no sense," said Lubin, a graduate student at UC Berkeley.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.