Issue date: 11/25/09 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Evan Andrews [Click to enlarge]

Many call the prospect of attending college and attaining some form of higher education a "golden opportunity." Well, such an opportunity in the Golden State will cost you. On Thursday, the University of California Board of Regents approved raising undergraduate fees 32 percent by next fall.

"It's difficult to sympathize with the Regents because they don't really listen to student concerns," said Nathan Houle, a senior English major at UC Santa Barbara. "I can understand they have to fill the budget gaps, but it's unfortunate when they are forced to do so because of their own mismanagement and at the expense of the students in this public education system."

The reasoning is simple: California is $68.5 billion in debt, and education is not cheap, so the 10-campus system's state funding has decreased. The system president, Mark Yudof, said that the state funding per student is half of what it was in 1990.

While I understand the logic of the decision, California is shooting itself in the foot by taking from education to close the budget gap. More baffling is the insignificance of the savings on the total debt. The cuts will save the state $813 million, but that is only 1.2 percent of the state debt.

The future of America is in its youth and their education. If students cannot access high-quality education, who will fix the financial problems of the nation?

The system has seen major reductions: 1,900 employees have been laid off, 3,800 positions cut and the hiring of 1,600 new positions, mostly faculty, suspended.

"There's significantly fewer classes and sections being offered," Houle said. "It's really difficult to get the classes you need to graduate and many people have spent a lot of time getting all the credits needed for various minors and their minors are being cut so they're left out in the cold."

The University of California system is one of the nation's best, boasting six schools in the Top 50 of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. The Berkeley campus headlines the group at No. 21; the Los Angeles campus follows closely at No. 24, and the San Diego, Davis, Santa Barbara and Irvine campuses rank 35, 42, 42, and 46 respectively.

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