OAKLAND--University of California students who aren’t from the Golden State are set to pay more to attend the prestigious system this fall.

The board of regents that oversees UC voted Thursday morning to raise tuition for out-of-state and international students by 3.5 percent, or around $1,000.

Non-resident students will now pay a nearly $29,000 supplemental tuition charge on top of the $12,630 that in-state students pay.

Most of the regents, who voted 12-3 for the increase with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Assemblyman John Pérez and student regent Paul Monge opposing, said the increase would raise nearly $35 million in badly needed funds and help the university remain globally competitive.

But students have said the hike puts higher education increasingly out of reach for some students. Students could be forced to go part time or drop out altogether, Monge worried, pointing out that sometimes visas place caps on how many hours international students can work.

“We can’t continue to treat nonresident students as cash cows rather than constituents, because that’s what they are,” Monge said.

Room-and-board costs have now ballooned to more than $15,000 a year at many campuses, leaving many students scrambling for increasingly costly off-campus alternatives.

George Kieffer, the chair of the regents, acknowledged the board had heard some “wrenching stories” from students in need, but urged his colleagues “not to lose sight of the other picture on this, that our chancellors uniformly asked us to take this up and consider it because of their own budgetary needs.”

Gov. Jerry Brown has typically proposed increasing UC’s state funding by 4 percent, but reduced that to 3 percent this year. Brown called on the system to limit its spending, prompting intense lobbying from UC for more money.

The regents, who have had a tense relationship with lawmakers in Sacramento following several scathing audits of UC’s finances, agreed to roll back the increase if their lobbying for more state funding pays off. They also approved a call to ask the state to permit UC to reinstate financial aid for low-income nonresident students.

But the chances of those things happening are slim, particularly since UC is already asking lawmakers for money to offset a possible 2.7 percent tuition increase for in-state students set to come up for a vote in May.

“I think reality needs to intrude here,” UC President Janet Napolitano said. “The notion that the legislature will provide any relief on the non-resident tuition aspect of our budget is illusory. They’re simply not going to do it.”

The increase, Napolitano said, is “necessary for the fiscal health of the university.” (Source: Los Angeles Daily News)

Story Date: March 26, 2018