As you may have heard, UC President Yudof has proposed an 8 percent undergraduate fee hike for the 2011-12 year. He is also proposing several initiatives to ease the impact of the increase, including an expansion of the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan to fully cover all tuition for students from families with incomes under $80,000. Additionally, one-third of the revenues generated by the fee hike will be set aside for financial aid. In the end, about 55 percent of UC undergraduates will have the entire proposed fee increase covered by financial aid, Cal Grant awards, or a combination.
These proposals are part of a multipronged effort to cope with the fiscal realities confronting the university. President Yudof will present the comprehensive package, which includes a state budget request of $596 million more for UC, to the UC Regents next week.
On our campus, a recent change in systemwide policy will generate a slight increase in revenues from fee hikes. Until this fall, every time student fees went up, some campuses received only a portion of the new money paid into the system by their own students. Indeed, when I became chancellor, UCSC received only 67 percent of the funds generated by fee hikes. After several years of advocacy with the Office of the President to change that policy, I'm pleased to report that we expect that 100 percent of future fee increases paid by UCSC students will be distributed back to UCSC.
In the overall scheme of campus budgets, these new revenues amount to a trickle, not a gush. I continue to advocate for more significant changes in systemwide per-student funding formulas. There is a lot at stake, and we have a strong case. Securing adequate resources goes to the heart of our mission, and I am determined to keep this discussion moving forward.
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Sincerely, 
George Blumenthal |
