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Budget difficulties could mean student fee increases at UC campuses

Students may face higher fee increases and the University of California could impose constraints on enrollment because of continuing budget cuts, UC President Richard Atkinson said recently.

Atkinson told UC regents in a letter that a proposal that allows UC to absorb additional budgets cuts in the 2003-04 fiscal year includes raising student fees and borrowing money. And further cuts in outlying fiscal years may lead to UC cutting back on student enrollment growth, he said.

"The University of California has taken major budget cuts, and we now have cut as deep as we can without harming the quality of the student educational experience -- the very thing for which students come to this university," Atkinson said. "Unfortunately, the state continues to propose deeper and deeper budget cuts as it confronts its most serious fiscal crisis ever.

"Raising student fees and constraining new enrollments are very painful decisions to make, and I wish we did not have to consider them. But I am convinced that the alternative -- allowing the educational quality of the University of California to deteriorate -- would be even worse."

To read a UC news release, click here.

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