Poll: Should UC Berkeley Abolish Tuition?
A plan presented by UC Riverside students would scrap tuition UC wide and instead have graduates pay 5 percent of their income for 20 years. Do you think it would work? Take the poll.
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How do you make a University of California education more affordable while still bringing in revenue?
It's a complex riddle, but UC Riverside students think they have the answer — scrap tuition altogether and "invest" in students instead.
A student group called Fix UC presented the "UC Student Investment Proposal" to the Board of Regents in Wednesday night's meeting. The plan would abolish upfront tuition and require instead that students pay 5 percent of their annual income for 20 years after graduation, interest free.
The group claims that the UC system's current annual revenue would be tripled under the new plan to $4.6 billion. The San Francisco Chronicle explains the math behind the plan here, and details can be found on Fix UC's website under "data".
"We think the ideas are constructive," Yudof told the student group in the meeting. "We will give it a close look," he said, adding that Executive Vice President Nathan Brostrom along with other other "number crunchers" would "review it thoroughly."
But despite the impressive numbers, UC officials expressed concern about the vague ideas for payment enforcement, the LA Times reports. The proposal states that contribution would be enforced by a new University of California office in charge of collection, but does not offer further details.
Fix UC President Chris LoCascio told the Daily Cal that the student plan encourages a lifelong relationship with the university, and an incentive for all UC schools to support students in a successful career.
Fix UC claims that the plan would eliminate the financial burden that college puts on parents, alleviate the financial burden shouldered by students and their families, and allow each UC campus to "grow and thrive" due to increased revenue.
In the last decade, UC tuition has nearly quadrupled and state funding has been drastically cut. Last year, the State of California cut $660 million in UC system funding, and tuition for the 2011-2012 school year increased by around 18 percent over the previous year.
What do you think of the plan to eliminate tuition and opt for student investment instead? Take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
Milan Moravec
3:25 pm on Thursday, January 19, 2012
Abolish subsidy for foreign tuition at UC Berkeley. Californians subsidize the tuition of foreign students at UC Berkeley (UCB) in the guise of diversity while instate student tuition/fees are doubled. UCB Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau displaces Californians qualified for public UCB with a $50,600 payment from foreign students.
UC Berkeley is not increasing enrollment. Birgeneau accepts $50,600 foreign students and displaces qualified instate Californians (When depreciation of assets funded by Californians are in foreign and out of state tuition calculations, out of state and foreign tuition is more than $100,000 + and does NOT subsidize instate tuition).
Like Coaches, Chancellors Who Do Not Measure Up Must Go: remove Birgeneau.
Barbara Wilcox
1:37 pm on Friday, January 20, 2012
I think it's worth piloting: Enroll 500 or 1000 students under the program, track them for 5 or 10 years after graduation and see what happens.
Milan Moravec
6:34 pm on Friday, January 20, 2012
How come it costs 50% more (after adjusting for inflation) for University of California Board of Regents Chair Lansing and President Yudof to provide the same service?
Total expenditures in the UC system in 1999-2000 were $3.2 billion to educate a student population of 154,000. Converted into 2011 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI calculator gets us to $4.3B in 2011 dollars, which comes out to $27,850 per student.
In 2011, the total UC system budget was $6.3 billion dollars: an increase of almost 50% after adjusting for inflation. Enrollment also rose - to 158,000 students, a 3% increase, yielding a cost per student of $39,750.
Costs went up 50% in 10 years. And yet the news out of UC President Yudof is that the UC system is "bracing" for 'another round of budget cuts'!
Email opinions to UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu