This Date in UCSF History: Fees Hiked

Originally published in Synapse - The UCSF student newspaper on Jan. 19, 1989

Governor Deukmejian’s proposed 1989-90 budget will lead to a 10 percent increase in UC student registration and education fees as of Fall, 1989.

This would raise the average cost per student by $144 to $1,577 for California residents. Out-of-state students will face a 17 percent rise in tuition.

The fee increase, which is likely to be approved by the legislature and the regents, will probably not raise the level of student services. It will be used to fund administrative costs that in the past were paid for by the state. This process is called “offloading” (from the state to the students).

Other UC campuses have taken advantage of large registration fee increases to make students pay a part of financial aid, minority recruitment, non-academic deans and other items formerly underwritten by the state. UCSF has not done that in the past.

If the University offloads on registration fees, this campus is likely to feel less of a service impact than others because our registration fees have been running a deficit. Before any offloading would occur, UCSF probably would first fund the deficit and debt that the registration fee committee has incurred coming into this year.

UCSA president Tracey Woodruff —a UCSF graduate student in bioengineering— has denounced the governor's plan as “a serious departure from the state's student fee policy.”

State law provides that student fees are to be based on previous budget increases.

For 1989-90, the fee-setting formula would call for a three percent increase in UC student fees. The governor made use of an escape clause in the law that enables him to abandon the fee-setting formula and raise fees up to 10 percent under “unusual circumstances.”

The next step is for the California legislature to review the Governor's budget. UCSA intends to lobby against the increase.