Effects of Student Fee Hikes

The Regents are regularly assured by UCOP officials that UC fee hikes are not hurting undergraduate access: see the minutes for the May 2009 Finance Committee meeting, especially pp 5-7). The recently announced Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan for students from families below the median family income in California ($60,000) is a good thing, and UC does enroll higher proportions of low-income students than other major research universities. But these are all statements about programs, not about impacts - they are about inputs rather than outputs for students. They are also not broken out by race and ethnicity. All recent students of affordability and student debt are alarming particularly for African American and Latino students. California does better than most states, in large part because of the community college system. See the remarks of Regent Chavez (pp 10-11) as an example of a Regent who, in contrast to President Yudof's assurances, believes the high-fee/high-aid model is already upon us. The Regents need real research about what is actually happening to students rather than simply hearing praise of programs for them.