Chalk one up for the students? Well, not quite.
On the surface, it may seem like some long-overdue justice that
the University of California was ordered to repay $33.8 million to
students. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Monday that
the UC misled students by raising fees.
UC students have had to endure annual fee increases since the
2003-2004 academic year. Despite student protests, the regents kept
at it.
In 2004, a group of graduate students decided to do the
protesters one better.
They filed a lawsuit claiming the fee increases breached an
agreement the UC made with them when they enrolled. The agreement
stipulated that “fee(s) will remain the same for each student
for the duration of his or her enrollment in the
professional-degree program.”
The UC argued that the statement, which appeared on brochures
and other material, was not a legally binding contract and that
fees are subject to change without notice.
The judge’s ruling in favor of the students, which the
university is planning to appeal, spurred something akin to a
victory dance.
Andrew Freeman, one of the counsels for the plaintiffs, said in
a statement, “This is a great victory for students
everywhere.”
And Mohammad Kashmiri, the lead plaintiff in the case, said the
victory “signals that the university can’t balance
their budget on the backs of students and their
families.”
Freeman and Kashmiri got it half right. In principle, it’s
true this is a victory for students. Before, students had no choice
but to pay the UC’s fee increases. It may have meant taking
on an extra job or going without groceries for another week, but it
had to be done. Now, this ruling has given the student movement
some teeth.
But it’s a bit presumptuous to say this lawsuit will
dissuade the UC from raising student fees to keep its coffers flush
““ especially because it already has.
At its July 2005 meeting, the regents approved a
“temporary educational fee increase,” which will bill
UC professional school students an extra $700 next year, and
another $1,050 in 2006-2007. In 2007-2008, the UC will also assess
a surcharge of $60 to all UC students. This money will go toward
paying off the settlement of the fee-increase lawsuit.
In short, the UC is paying for a fee increase lawsuit with
another fee increase. Worse, while other fee increases were levied
with the ostensible point of preserving the UC’s academic
quality, this fee increase was levied to cover a university
slip-up.
Which leaves us all wondering: What exactly was solved here?
Lawsuits notwithstanding, student fee increases will always be
on the table. And that’s a result of the UC not having a
firm, long-term plan to protect its finances against outside
disasters, such as California’s budget crisis.
Talk has circulated among the regents about changing the
UC’s fee policy to one where fees are increased when economic
times are good. Hence, in theory students are better able to afford
it, so fees can be lowered or leveled out when times are bad.
It might not be a perfect solution, but it would at least show
some foresight and advance planning ““ two things the UC seems
to have lacked. Better yet, it would make the UC seem like it is
more attuned to student needs, the lack of which arguably led to
the lawsuit in the first place.
Students aren’t an ATM that university officials can turn
to whenever they need cash. But it’s going to take a shift in
regent thinking ““ not student lawsuits ““ to dispel that
mentality once and for all.