Students Angry, Frustrated by College Fee Hike

It is final exam week for the winter quarter at Cal State Los Angeles, a time when students normally try to block out distractions to concentrate on their studies. But on Thursday, students complained that worries about sharply higher school bills next fall are clouding their focus on exams.

“People like us, we are trying to get ahead and make something of ourselves. And now we feel we are getting defeated,” sophomore Haydee Seoane lamented on the day after the Cal State system moved to raise undergraduate fees next fall 36% to $1,788. Fees have doubled since 1990 and by 1995 will double again to about $2,540.

To pay school fees and living expenses that her $900 state scholarship does not cover, the 19-year-old psychology major from Bell works two part-time jobs--as a recruiter for the campus and as a bank clerk. Next year, she said she either will work more or, she hopes, try to transfer to a private college that might award her a large financial aid package.

Seoane said many students are frustrated, angry and “feel there isn’t much we can do about it.” That mixture of rage and resignation was common throughout the 20-campus Cal State system, which enrolls 340,000 students and calls itself “the people’s university” because of its openness to low-income, older and part-time students. The welcome mat is getting increasingly frayed, claimed students who talked about having to find extra jobs or dropping out for a term to work and save money for school.

Few held out hope that the Legislature and governor would reverse the Cal State trustees’ fee decision. Few said they believed administrators’ promises that needy students will receive enough additional aid to cover the fee hikes. And none said they expect the higher fees to allow the system to restore thousands of class sections canceled in the past two years of budget crises.

At Cal State Northridge, David Norman, 21, a full-time student majoring in Pan-African studies, is thinking about increasing his 40-hour workweek to at least 50 hours in order to pay for the stiffer fees. And he fears that more classes may be canceled, delaying his graduation.

“I think that continuing to cut classes and increase fees is an atrocity,” Norman said. “They’re keeping you in school longer and at the same time increasing fees. The university is winning both ways.”

Suzie Villandry, 23, a film major at San Diego State, said she works 20 hours a week as a clerk in the student government office to help her family with school bills. She is afraid of her parents’ reaction to the latest fee increase.

“It’s just another slap in the face to students,” said Villandry, who receives no financial aid. “I have to tell my parents tonight. I just hope my mom doesn’t break down. It’s been so hard for them to help me. I’ve got one year to go. I just hope I can make it. It’s more stress every day.”

Facing another decline in state revenues for his campuses, Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz proposed the fee change, contending that his new formula is preferable to the unpredictable increases from year to year. His plan eventually would charge students one-third of the real cost of their education, let taxpayers foot the rest and devote more funds to aid.

Dale Lee, a Cal State Los Angeles sophomore, agreed with Munitz that Cal State fees still will be a bargain compared to many other state universities nationwide. But Lee, who began college at Kent State in Ohio, is pained that higher fees in California do not make it easier to register for classes.

“I would gladly pay $1,000 a quarter if classes were restored,” said the 27-year-old, who majors in Japanese language studies and works part time as a technician for a coffee delivery service. “I would gladly pay a fee increase if the basic components of why a student comes to college are brought back.”

Anticipating the fee hike and a worsening crunch for classes, Norma Villalon took an unusually heavy course load this winter quarter at Cal State Los Angeles. “I did it so I wouldn’t have to stay next year,” said the 22-year-old senior majoring in anthropology.

Meanwhile, the state’s other public university system, the University of California, is preparing for today’s meeting in Riverside at which the UC Board of Regents is expected to increase undergraduate fees $995 next fall, to an average $4,039, not including room and board. About 35 students, chanting slogans against that plan, disrupted Thursday’s session of the regents for about 20 minutes. Riverside police escorted out many of those students, but made no arrests.

Times staff writers Tom Gorman in Riverside and Tony Perry in San Diego and correspondent Carmen Valencia in the San Fernando Valley contributed to this story.