Group OKs 10% Cap on Cal State, UC Fee Increases

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, university officials and student leaders Wednesday announced an unprecedented agreement to limit student fees at California’s public four-year colleges and universities.

The agreement, contained in a bill that was drafted with the help of the state Department of Finance, would impose a 10% cap on all future fee increases at the University of California and California State University systems and establish a fee adjustment formula that would end the rapid and dramatic increases seen in recent years.

“This bill, which represents a consensus after years of conflict on the issue, would ensure that any fee adjustments at the university or state university would be gradual, moderate and predictable,” Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) said in announcing the agreement.

The announcement is the outgrowth of a 4-month study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, which was directed by the Legislature to come up with a replacement for the existing mechanism that has been responsible for fee increases of up to 62% in a single year.

The bill, which would take effect in the 1986-87 school year, is being carried by all three members of the Senate’s finance subcommittee on higher education, which has wrestled with the problem through several administrations. It would also apply to fees at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco and proposes to do away with the practice of charging additional fees to graduate students.

However, the measure will not apply to California’s community colleges, which last fall began charging a $50-per-semester fee, the first ever for the state’s two-year colleges. That fee is scheduled to be reviewed at about the same time that the new university fee-setting system would take effect.

Fears Volatile Issue

Maddy said he fears including the volatile issue of community college funding would destroy the delicate consensus behind the fee agreement.

“We took on as much as we could take on,” Maddy said. “I think there is still hope by some that community college fees . . . may (eventually) drop out of sight. There are so many other issues still revolving around the community college issue that we don’t want to mess this up.”

Current fees at the state’s four-year institutions range from $650 at state university campuses to $1,317 in the UC system. Last year, Gov. George Deukmejian ordered a slight reduction in the fees and is recommending that they be held at those levels for next year.

It would be the first time that the fees have remained constant in at least five years. Since 1980, student fees have nearly doubled at UC and tripled at Cal State campuses.

“Under Gov. Deukmejian and Jerry Brown (former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.), essential segments of higher education and the Legislature to some degree attempted to balance their budgets on the backs of the students in the university and state college systems,” Maddy said.

In 1982 and 1983--under both Democratic and Republican administrations--fee increases were imposed during the annual budget process, the middle of the school year, catching many students by surprise.

The new formula would allow fee adjustments--both up and down--once a year, tied to a three-year average of student services costs. Maddy said increases are likely to be far below the 10% limit except during years of “dire circumstances.”

The proposal would give students ample notice of fee changes by requiring the university governing boards to fix the fees at least 10 months before the fall term in which they are to take effect. And it restates the Legislature’s commitment to providing enough student aid to offset fee increases for needy students. Deukmejian is recommending more than a 21% increase in student aid funding in his proposed 1985-86 state budget.

Student leaders at both university systems applauded Wednesday’s announcement as a “historic step” that will protect students and make fees more predictable.

“A lot of compromises were made among all the participants, but from a student’s standpoint, we are very pleased we have a cap at last on student fees,” said Jim Lofgren, associate director of the UC Student Lobby, adding that students “will be fighting” to keep fee increases well below the 10% limit.

While all the talk Wednesday was of widespread support for the plan, some lawmakers found it difficult to exhibit more than grudging approval.

Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland), a finance subcommittee member who has continually fought the imposition of student fees, said the only reason he showed up for the announcement was the committee had “worked so close together that I didn’t want any inference drawn by my failure to attend.”

Petris said his posture is that “if you have to have fees--that is the climate apparently now--this is certainly the best way to go about it.”