Sign the petition to delay the Regents' vote on a 32% fee increase!

Please sign the petition to delay the regents' vote on the 32% fee increase: http://www.saveuc.org/petition_fees.php

Organized by the UC Berkeley's Faculty Org SAVE.

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Dear UC Board of Regents:

We the undersigned ask that you postpone your upcoming vote of November 19 on proposed fee hikes for UC graduate and undergraduate students.

The proposed increase of 32% for undergraduates, coming on top of previous hikes, would mean a total increase of 40% within the past 18 months. This precipitous increase of thousands of dollars is expected to force large numbers of students, some very close to graduating, to withdraw from UC or to incur further crippling financial debt.

In the meantime, significant questions have arisen concerning the use of the funds that would result from these proposed fee hikes. We are concerned that some student fee revenue, rather than funding instruction, is being diverted to debt service for university construction projects. We are concerned also that a portion of student fees from all campuses subsidize the medical centers at UCSF, UCLA, and UC Davis. Families hard-pressed to pay for their children's university education would surely be unhappy at the prospect of paying yet more when these moneys may be inappropriately diverted from the educational mission of the university.

We the undersigned ask the following:

1. That any vote concerning UC fee hikes should be deferred until an audit can be accomplished and it can be clearly demonstrated that the revenue from fee hikes will go to education, not construction or other UC projects.

2. That more time be taken to consider alternative options to an across the board 32% fee hike, such as a fee structure correlated to ability to pay, and a slower and smaller fee hike over the next 18 months. Just as the UC faculty furlough policy of an across the board salary reduction was adjusted to a graduated cut, so should fees be adjusted to means.

Posted on 13/11/2009 by