Students Vow to Fight Wilson on Budget : Finances: They say the governor’s plans to reduce funding and increase fees will slow the economy and deprive deserving people of an education.

California’s public college and university student leaders, reacting angrily to Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposals to cut funding and raise fees, vowed Wednesday to band together to fight the plans and vote Wilson out of office.

“This is the working-class people’s university system,” Ron Palacios, a director of the California State Student Assn., said during a news conference at Los Angeles City College. “What will happen to this community if the people at the bottom can’t get their education?”

Leaders of statewide organizations representing students at all three tiers of the state’s higher education system--the University of California, Cal State University and the community colleges--said Wilson’s proposals, combined with the last several years of budget cuts and fee increases, will keep large numbers of deserving students out of college. The fee increases also would slow efforts to turn around the state’s lagging economy because they would prevent people from getting education and job training, students said.

Unveiling a budget last week that calls for painful cuts in state spending, Wilson proposed general revenue reductions of 7.3% for UC and 4.5% for the Cal State system. Those cuts would almost certainly lead to more student fee increases, analysts said.

Cal State’s annual fees have doubled in four years, to $1,308 this year, not including room, board, parking, books and other costs. UC’s annual undergraduate fees are $2,824 and the cost was scheduled to increase by $605 in 1993-94 even before Wilson unveiled his budget.

For the state’s 107 community colleges--open to virtually anyone with the desire to attend and the $10-a-unit fee charged to most students--Wilson proposed an 11.1% revenue cut. The $301-million loss could be largely offset by increasing the fee to $30 a unit--$900 a year for a full-time student earning 30 course credits a year, the governor said.

He also proposed ending state subsidies for most community college students with bachelor’s degrees, who, beginning this semester, are paying $50 a credit. Wilson’s proposal would raise the fee to $105 a unit, community college officials estimated.

The governor, contending that students in California’s public higher education system are getting a bargain even with the higher fees, said the state’s recession-battered taxpayers cannot continue to bear such a large share of the cost of higher education. He said his proposal to increase the proportion of community college fees going to financial aid would help soften the hardship for needy students.

But students said Wilson’s financial aid proposal will not help most of their peers, especially those already struggling to meet previous increases in fees.

“Students cannot continue to bear the burden of the state’s budget woes,” said Sal Damji, president of Cal State Northridge Associated Students.

City College student Tony Lowden said Wilson’s proposals make little sense for someone interested in improving the state’s economic climate. They would “result in thousands of vocational and academic classes being cut,” he said. “Tens of thousands of students seeking work-force preparation would be turned away.”

UCLA student Grace Park was among those urging students to organize to oppose Wilson’s proposals and to see that he is voted out of office. “We’re going to fight,” she said.