- NEWS
- SPORTS
- O.C. football: Friday's playoff stories 42 minutes ago
- Servite gets best of San Clemente QB 1 hour & 30 minutes ago
- Bruins uneven but still win first of season 1 hour & 31 minutes ago
- Ortiz back in the UFC
- BUSINESS
- ENTERTAINMENT
- LIFE
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
- Today's cartoons: Job count goes to the bird 2 hours & 25 minutes ago
- Mark Steyn: Turning KSM into O.J. 2 hours & 25 minutes ago
- Letters: Illegal immigration vs. the First Amendment
- Letters: Debunking myths seculars spin against creation
UCI students to protest fee hikes
November 9th, 2009, 5:42 pm · 20 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Scores of UCI students supported union workers on Sept. 24th when they protested budget cuts being made throughout the UC system. Photo by Mindy Schauer, The Register
UC Irvine students say they’ll stage a rally on campus on Nov. 17th to protest the proposed 32 percent fee hike that the University of California Board of Regents is expected to approve next week when it meets at UCLA. The proposal would increase fees paid by undergraduate residents by at least $1,344.
The Regents are considering the hike to raise money to help balance the state budget. The proposal is supported by UC President Mark Yudof, who describes it as a painful necessity that will help the UC system slash its budget by more than $800 million. About $77 million of those cuts are being made at UCI, where there have layoffs, furloughs and program cuts. (Yudof statement.)
“President Yudof says that financial aid will cover the fee hikes that are faced by students from families that earn less than $70,000 a year. But what about students from families who earn a little bit more?,” says Emmeline Domingo, a sociology and literary journalism student at UCI. “My family makes about $75,000. I’m getting Cal Grants now, but that program might be cut and I might have to take out a bank loan.”
Domingo is helping the Associated Students of UCI (student government) organize the Nov. 17th protest, which will begin at 11:30 a.m. outside Aldrich Hall on UCI’s Ring Road. It’s unknown how large the rally will be, but Domingo said she hoped about 500 students would turn out.
Also on College Life …
- Chapman president paid more than U.S. president
- Chapman strips publicity from upcoming ‘undie run’
- Chapman president to faculty: Make courses tougher
On Sciencedude …
NEW: Cal State Fullerton grad Tracy Caldwell to travel to International Space Station
20 Comments
Leave a Reply
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
-
-
-
ADVERTISEMENT
I don’t understand what they’re protesting. What do they want UC to do? Pull $800 million out of the sky? Let’s just say that suddenly Yudof started to see it their way and said, “Ok, we won’t raise tuition. We’ll just cut from UC’s budget.” Are these student going to protest when that decision results in massive cuts in classes, programs, loss of faculty and lecturers, and vastly reduced campus services? Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it, too.
They should be directing their anger at the California, not the UC.
-UCI student
well said spence
Editor’s Note: Dan’s comment deleted for being a personal attack.
“President Yudof says that financial aid will cover the fee hikes that are faced by students” - and therein lies one of the major problems. Because of the third party payer system (i.e, the government paying for students or lending to them) the colleges have continued to charge more and more exorbidant tuition and we taxpayers, via our out of control government, continue to pay them and encourage still higher fees. College professors and administrators are being paid at rates that should be reserved for extremely successful, job creating entrepreneurs not government employees.
Add to this to the excessive compensation and benefits paid to firefighters and other government employees and we all are starting to feel the thievery by the public sector from the private sector.
It is time to reevaluate all of our public servant positions compensation and benefits, from the President of the US to the city gardener. We are dramatically overpaying them all. Remember they work for us, not the other way around, and we can fill every one of their positions for half the cost or less.
“we can fill every one of their positions for half the cost or less.”
haha. ok. But just so you know, there is something called a market (aka. what people are willing to pay for something) and unless professors and administrators are completely unintelligent (not too likely), they’re going to follow the money.
If you really want to pay professors and administrators that much less, then there won’t be anymore public universities at any level.
Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that- but that is what it would mean.
You are not taking into consideration that some public servants have multiple degrees, or are working on cures for disease. Yes some are gardeners and pencil pushers some are not.
Octaxpayer,
What are you talking about? The Department of Education is one of the most bloated, corrupt, and ineffecient sectors of big government we have. UCI gets TONS of government money and grants. You know how many career professors spend all their time sucking off the government teet of free money and grants only to go open some multimillion dollar biotech start up. If you want to talk about public servant positions what the hell do you think the UC system is? LMAO! Some of you are real geniuses I tell yoU!
Mr Domingo is protesting because he may have to take out a bank loan? Sounds like the system has been taking care of him just fine.
Fishtale: Domingo is a woman, not a man.
If students really want to go to University they will find a way to pay for it. No matter what the cost. Consider it a sieve.
We need the brightest and the best actively searching for tomorrow.
I do find it ironic however that the highest paid University of California employees are athletic and not research.
…and the majority of their compensation doesn’t come from state funds (i.e. taxes). Same for the higher paid employees (i.e. doctors) at the medical centers. However people in these two groups are always on the lists the media publish on highly (over)paid public employees.
Too right. Many research projects are privately funded.
Chapman undergrads are paying around $37k/year in tuition. UC Irvine undergrads are paying around $9,800/year in “fees” (UC’s euphemism for tuition). If we use Chapman as a baseline for higher education costs in OC, then UC Irvine undergrads are currently looking at a nearly 75% savings. Even with the impending fee increases, UC students would be enjoying somewhere around a 65% savings over their Chapman counterparts. I haven’t seen protestors lining up outside Jim Doti’s house complaining about the soaring cost of education, and I don’t see folks writing to the paper about exorbitant and lavish funding of Chapman U.
Yawn. UCI slackers. Fees go up, such is life, welcome to the REAL WORLD. Not the South County trust fund mentality of television fame. Do something about it instead of protesting. Get a job. Don’t make excuses about there are no jobs, get a manual labor job, or is that too low brow for you UCI types? Heck I held 3 jobs at once at one point to get me through college. So want if it takes longer. It’s the mentality of the “I want it now” crowd that’s going to kill society’s future.
Your ignorance is showing, Ed. UCI had the highest rate of undergrads receiving some form of financial aid in all of the UC system in 2004 (not quite sure where they are ranked today). Speaking from personal experience, there are thousands of UCI students who live at home and commute in order to save money. I really don’t think that students going to public universities have that type of mentality of “wanting everything now”. I’ve seen it more from those attending private universities.
Sorry your so btter Ed, but I paid for my self to go to UCI. Like many others I didn’t mind the cost. I was grateful to be acctepted at such a great Univeristy.
Strike! The students should stage a Walk Out, refusing to attend class until the tuition fees are lowered. There a lot of high school seniors looking to enter UCI next year and the more students protesting and boycotting classes this year will mean more openings for incoming students next year.
Yeah! Protest! Boycott classes! Walk out and stage a month long strike! Stupid is as stupid does.
Had an interesting conversation with one of the parents at last Sunday’s excellent “Parent Day” at UCI. I was made aware that a union school employee is compensated 2 hours pay if they get a call at home from “the office” (school) This type of thing is almost hard to believe, but it’s true.
Given such ridiculous union penalties, we should start cost mitigation by evaluating what we are paying people in these unions. This also goes for State and local union employees. The days of taxpayers funding incredibly generous pension plans are coming to an end. It is now purely a matter of fiscal survival.
As a start, publishing examples of such silly union “penalties” would go a long way in educating taxpayers as to where their taxes are going.
did anyone even read the link to the student journalism blog?
there’s some good stuff there.
ucibudget.blogspot.com
educate yourselves before posting your political opinions and misguided hearsay.
Mark,
The ucibudget blogspot is an outstanding source of information, far better and much more detailed than found elsewhere (including this blog).