California Tuition Increase

By Shawn Chandok

On Thursday November 29th, the Regents Board of California state once again agreed upon raising tuition for University of California colleges by 9.3% or approximately $662 dollars per credit by fall 2010. The increase in cost was due to the current $450 million dollar deficit. Currently more than 884 employees statewide have been fired due to budget cuts in and the number is expected to increase to over 1000 by the end of December 2009. University of California President Mark Yudof hopes “The student fee hike will generate approximately $152 million in revenue, and has $54.2 million designated for undergraduate and graduate student financial aid. The rest will be to cover state budget reductions, student support services, mental health services, and other mandatory cost increases.” Furthermore, Yudof mentioned the tightening on admissions for California residents in order to attract out of state students whom would pay full out of state tuition costs. As expected, this has caused quite a bit of commotion amongst students who have begun protesting outside the Regents building with signs labeled “RIP Our Future, and Stop Increasing the price of our dreams.” The biggest fear students face currently is the fact that they might have to stop attending collages anywhere from 1 semester to a year, simply to get another job to pay the tuition costs.

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