It's time to demand more than holds on fee hikes

Thursday, February 1, 1996

It's time to demand more than holds on fee hikes

UC Student Association plans statewide campaign to roll back registration payments

By John Du

I sat at the Jan. 18 regents meeting anxiously awaiting Gov. Pete Wilson's performance. Because he cares dearly for our education, Wilson, as a regent, has attended only two regents meetings in five years.

As he delivered his eloquent soliloquy about a "reverse-racist" society, Wilson managed to slip in his valiant defense of education - a temporary hold on fee hikes for 1996-1997. The room packed with students, faculty, staff and administrators broke out in laughter. What a comedian: The man responsible for cutting education to fund more prisons now claims to be the guardian of our education.

What is not a joke, is that not everyone is able to see through Wilson's lies. Not everyone is able to see that for the past five years that Wilson has been in office, funding for the UC schools has dropped by $433 million, representing the largest decrease in two decades.

Not everyone is able to see the havoc Wilson reeked since he took office in 1991 when fees skyrocketed out of control by 135 percent. Not everyone is able to see that these fee increases forced 200,000 California students to forfeit their dreams of a college education according to the State Assembly Finance Committee.

Not everyone is able to see that of the extra $1 billion in revenue realized in this year's state budget, only 4.3 percent is allocated for higher education and 10.8 percent for prisons (L.A. Times, Jan. 11).

Basically, our governor would rather perpetuate the incessant problems of crime and poverty by increasing spending for prisons at double the rate of increasing educational funding.

Unfortunately, not everyone is able to see that students, not Wilson, have harnessed broad-base support for education, forcing him not to increase fees.

If you haven't already figured it out, Wilson is not freezing fee hikes because he is the "education governor." He is doing so because students are demonstrating effectiveness in shaping the state's priority.

For years, students have advocated on all levels for a more accessible education, from grass roots to legislatures. It is students who have defined access to education as decreased fees and financial aid provided in the form of grants (not loans) to 60 percent of UCLA students currently receiving financial aid.

Access to education also means providing affirmative action and outreach programs for underrepresented students who are systematically denied an equal opportunity to receive a proper kindergarten through 12th grade education.

This year, students, not Wilson, were able to stop another fee increase. The 0 percent fee increase is our victory. Through our advocacy, we gained support from legislatures, such as Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, who plans on running an initiative to freeze fees for the next five years. Wilson, the political opportunist that he is, preemptively allocated a 0 percent fee increase because he realized that the state legislature would inevitably vote for no increases with or without his support.

We must be conscious of our collective strength and prevent Wilson from claiming our victory.

However, a 0 percent fee increase is only a small step toward an accessible education. What does a 0 percent fee increase mean? Well, think of student fees as taxes. Imagine if your taxes increased by 135 percent over four years. On the fifth year, to prevent an armed revolution the government says, "Because we care, we are not going to raise your taxes this year." Obviously, this is not cause to break out the champagne.

A 0 percent fee increase still means that we are paying 135 percent more than we did in 1991. We must not be satisfied with a fee freeze and demand a fee roll back.

What? A fee roll back? Is that possible? Although we are so accustomed to fee increases that fee decreases are unimaginable, the funds are there. There is an excess of $1 billion in this year's state budget, and higher education only receives 4.3 percent of that amount.

The UC Student Association, which consists of student government officers from the 10 UC campuses, is implementing a statewide campaign for a fee roll back. We demand Wilson double the amount allotted to education to 8.6 percent of the extra $1 billion. This will decrease fees by about 10 percent and save UC students approximately $350 each year. Fees are another form of taxation on students, and if Wilson is giving tax breaks, we should get our fair share.

The external vice president and internal vice president officers will be out on Bruin Walk every week, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with postcards and information on fees and financial aid as part of the Five Minute Campaign. We are the weird ones wearing poster boards. Stop by and check us out. For more information, call the external vice president's office at 825-8545.

Du is the external vice president of the undergraduate student council.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu