Waiver could extend benefits to UC, state

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in
Chief  Timothy Kudo

Managing Editor
 Michael Falcone

Viewpoint Editor
 Cuauhtemoc Ortega

Staff Representatives
Maegan Carberry 
Edward Chiao
Kelly Rayburn

  Unsigned editorials represent a majority opinion of
the Daily Bruin Editorial Board. All other columns, letters and
artwork represent the opinions of their authors.   All
submitted material must bear the author’s name, address, telephone
number, registration number, or affiliation with UCLA. Names will
not be withheld except in extreme cases.   The Bruin
complies with the Communication Board’s policy prohibiting the
publication of articles that perpetuate derogatory cultural or
ethnic stereotypes.   When multiple authors submit
material, some names may be kept on file rather than published with
the material. The Bruin reserves the right to edit submitted
material and to determine its placement in the paper. All
submissions become the property of The Bruin. The Communications
Board has a media grievance procedure for resolving complaints
against any of its publications. For a copy of the complete
procedure, contact the Publications office at 118 Kerckhoff Hall.
Daily Bruin 118 Kerckhoff Hall 308 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA
90024 (310) 825-9898

Every resident who contributes to the California economy and
adds to the state’s resources should be entitled to a college
education ““ but the University of California makes this
unnecessarily difficult for some students.

Currently, undocumented immigrants are considered non-residents
by the UC and are charged out-of-state fees. The additional fees
make a UC education almost three times as expensive ““ in the
2002-2003 academic year, for example, students who are not
documented residents of California will pay $6,984 more than their
counterparts. This striking difference can discourage talented
students who are not legal residents, though live in the state,
from attending the UC.

Luckily, a law the legislature approved this October ““
Assembly Bill 540 ““ can change this. The bill waives
non-resident fees at the California State University system and
community college system for undocumented immigrants and
non-residents who graduate from a state high school after attending
for at least three years, and, if an undocumented immigrant, sign
an affidavit declaring their intent to obtain resident status.

This bill takes effect for CSU and community colleges this
month. But since the UC acts independently of the California
constitution, it’s necessary for the regents to approve the
bill’s changes to affect the university.

There’s no reason why the regents shouldn’t approve
the bill during their Jan. 16-17 meeting ““ the bill will help
students who come from families already paying state taxes, with
parents who may already be legal residents themselves. The UC
Office of the President has even recognized the importance of the
regents’ passing this bill by proposing the development of a
loan program that will provide aid to current eligible students
while the bill’s changes are instituted.

The goal of the UC ““ and of all the state’s public
universities ““ is to train people who can improve the quality
of life, competitiveness and economic strength of California.
Waiving out-of-state fees for students who already live in
California but are in the process of legalizing their resident
status is a small price to pay for these benefits.

But even if the regents pass this bill, the UC still has more
room for improvement in making itself more competitive and
attracting intellectual resources to California with a different
set of students ““ graduate students.

Recently, the Commission on the Growth and Support of Graduate
Education reported that the UC is losing top graduate students to
other universities who offer more attractive financial aid packages
and waive out-of-state tuition ““ much like some of the
benefits offered by AB 540 to UC undergraduates.

But out-of-state graduate candidates are ineligible for the
provisions of AB 540 in its current form, since they fail to meet
the California high school graduation requisite. The commission
predicts the UC ““ especially top campuses such as UCLA and UC
Berkeley ““ will have to start spending $215 million annually
in order to attract graduate students in order to sustain their
high rankings.

Given these findings, the UC regents need to begin considering
developing an AB 540 equivalent for graduate students in order to
keep providing the California public with quality institutions.
While some may think that fully or partially waiving out-of-state
tuition counters the purpose of the UC as a public university, it
is only necessary to consider the change admitting non-resident
students can have on California’s future.