8/2/2019 05-06 Budget Cuts

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a stateHow budget cuts and tuition hikes are affecting UC Irvine

of urgencyBy Sarah Barakat

Photo By Samah Malik

5 the word |  WINTER 2012

8/2/2019 05-06 Budget Cuts

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Choice of major, school location, and a university’s academic

status, used to be the most pressing factors that undergraduate

and graduate students considered when choosing to pursue higher

education.

 Today, the excessive cost of rising tuition has increasingly be-

come the prime factor in a student’s choice to pursue, and in some

situations, continue on the path of higher education.

In a reactionary response to the state of California’s decit, the

public University of California system has drastically increased its

tuition and fees, while cutting back on resources. At the University of California, Irvine, tuition for an in-state,

undergraduate student not living on campus has almost doubled,

increasing from $8,275.50 to $14,090.00 since 2007.

 To bring in more funds,

the UC system has also

started to recruit more out

of state students, creating 

a demographic of about

12.3% non-residents in

the 2011-2012 incoming 

freshman class.

 The university receives

about $20,000 more fromout-of-state students than

California residents, a sign

of the UC system’s call for

nancial help.

 The University of Cali-

fornia was established as a

public school system with

an intention to provide

quality education at an

almost non-existent cost.

“Access. Affordability.

Quality. These character-

istics are the hallmarks of the University of Califor-

nia and the foundation of 

its public service commit-

ment,” writes UC President Mark Yudof in the 2012-2012 Budget

For Current Operations report. “Their preservation remains the

University’s highest priority.”

But for the rst time in the history of the state’s education sys-

tem, students are paying more for tuition to fund the university than

the government.

Students are seeing an increase in tuition along with added fees

for university services that were once free.

Starting Winter 2012, students will have to pay an Instructional

 Technology Course Material Fee of $60 each quarter.

 According to the New University, UC Irvine’s ofcial paper, this

fee will pay for maintaining current technologies, such as computer

labs, and may possibly fund technological improvements around

campus such as expanded wireless coverage and power outlets,

resources that students did not have to pay for in the past.

Increasing tuition and fee hikes come hand-in-hand with cut

backs from university resources.

For example, the Learning Academic Resource Center, which

has in the past provided students with tutoring outside of classes

to ensure understanding of difcult material, has suffered from a

10.6% permanent budget reduction.

 These cuts have resulted in the survival of just seven tutoring 

programs, all consisting of biology, chemistry and math, leaving 

students in other elds such as humanities, computer sciences, and

social sciences to seek outside tutoring resources or with no extra

help at all.

 Along with academic resources, extracurricular activities have

proved to be of low priority to the University.

Student resource centers such as the Center for Service and Ac-

tion (CSA), a program that promotes volunteering for community 

projects in elds of health, education, and the environment, gavestudents the opportunity to give back to their communities through

service trips.

 The CSA has suffered from limited funding and stafng, as well

as a closed ofce, limiting 

outreach and application

of education to the com-

munity at-large.

Despite the cuts to

academic and community 

resources, the University 

proves to have funds avail-

able for other projects.

 A proposed concertby the Associated Stu-

dents of UCI included a

$170,000 budget in order

to bring Swedish DJ,

 Aviici.

 The concert was

planned to cost between

$30 and $40 per person,

 while other costs would

be paid from ASUCI’s

emergency funds.

 The misappropriation

of funds is most appar-ent in seemingly positive

additions to the university.

 This past fall, UCI handed

out free sweatshirts to incoming freshman and transfer students

during Welcome Week, which is estimated to have cost the school

approximately $200,000.

 The Global Viewpoint Lounge, which used to be a study lounge

in the Student Center, was transformed into a study center where

HD at screen TVs surround the room, playing news from across

the globe.

 Although the Global Viewpoint Lounge is an aesthetically pleas-

ing improvement to the study center, students are questioning why 

the University has appropriated its funds to its establishment while

making students pay for the technological maintenance of the study

space.

In order to answer the budget problem, the UC Regents have

proposed an 81% fee increase said be applied over the next four

years.

If the state does not create revenue for education budgeting, this

increase will replace the funds.

 ____________________________________________________

SARAH BARAKAT is a fourth year Criminology, Law and Society 

major at the University of California, Irvine

For the rst time in the

history of the state’s edu-

cation system, students are

paying more for tuition to

fund the university than

the government.

STUDENT ISSUES | alkalima  6