The Struggle to compete
Some prof. schools seek fee increases
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
After four years of sustained budget cuts and unsuccessful efforts
to fully fill the funding void, UC’s professional schools
are in the throes of a financial struggle to maintain the academic
quality of programs, stay competitive and offer enough financial
aid to help needy students hammered by higher fees.
Still reeling from the governor’s drastic cut of more than
$42 million from their budgets for this school year, the professional
schools hardest hit have requested, through their chancellors, that
their professional school fees for graduate students, already set
to go up by 3% in 2005-06, be increased again by as much as 7%.
While the 3% increase was approved by the regents last November
to help cover future cost increases, the professional programs are
trying to recoup cost increases they’ve had to cover over
the past four years as well as funds to help them stay competitive.
If approved by the regents at their May 26 meeting in San Francisco,
the proposed increases will generate approximately $3.7 million
in new revenue for the schools and roughly $1.2 million in financial
aid.
“The increased fees will generate additional revenue that
will allow these programs to remain competitive,” said UCLA
Vice Chancellor Steve Olsen, who reviewed the requests for fee increases
from the schools on this campus with Chancellor Albert Carnesale.
“They are facing increasing costs, primarily associated with
faculty salaries. These are very competitive programs, and they
are finding it very difficult to recruit and hold on to highly qualified
faculty.”
Among the UCLA professional schools that have requested additional
fee increases are law ($1,076), the Anderson School ($1,163) for
full-time resident students in its M.B.A. program, and dentistry
($1,059) for resident students and nursing ($205).
“With recent state funding cuts, we risk falling further
behind our top peers in the competition for the best faculty and
students,” said Anderson Dean Bruce Willison. “That
will devalue the Anderson M.B.A. degree. These fees allow us to
invest in the school and enhance our reputation, thereby providing
a lifetime return on students’ investment in their education.”
While fees for California residents in the M.B.A. program would
go up to $25,723, Anderson did not request another increase in non-resident
fees, which will be $34,873 in 2005-06.
“The other professional schools that have differential fees
determined that they didn’t want to have another fee increase
at this time,” Olsen explained. These included the schools
of Medicine, Public Health, Public Affairs and Theater, Film and
Television.
But another proposal that regents will hear immediately after they
deal with this one involves raising the educational fee for most
professional school graduate students $1,050, for two years, beginning
in 2005-06. If approved, this fee would apply to most students paying
the Fee for Selected Professional School Students. Graduate students
enrolled in the schools of public health and public affairs will
be exempt because they are already paying the increase, as are academic
graduate students.
The proposed increase would generate revenue lost after San Francisco
Court Judge James L. Warren issued a preliminary injunction blocking
UC from collecting increases of the selected professional fee from
roughly 3,100 UC students who were enrolled in professional schools
before 2003. The students in the Kashmiri lawsuit allege that increases
in this fee, approved for spring 2003 and for all subsequent years,
violated a contract between the UC and students.
As a result, UC estimates it has lost $22.5 million, revenue intended
to help cover base budget cuts to the professional degree programs.
But the cost could go as high as $55 million if the trial court
agrees with students that professional school fees should be rolled
back to 2001-02 fee levels and that UC owes them a refund.
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