UCI Students Weigh Toll of 33% Fee Hike on Their Lives : Education: The added $995 annually will mean quitting school for some. Others will seek part-time work or financial aid.

For college senior Rose Guerrero, like many UC Irvine students, the news last week that school fees will jump 33% has left her with a sense of lost options and a newfound cynicism.

“There are a lot of signs going up around campus for people selling furniture or whatever to help pay their fees,” said Guerrero, who graduates in June and had hoped to attend UC accreditation courses to become a teacher. Now, she said she will have to take time off to work and raise money.

“It’s so hard as it is. So many people I know aren’t going to be able to afford to go here anymore,” said Guerrero, 23, a Spanish major. “It’s so sad. What good is a university if it doesn’t have any students?”

For Guerrero, the hikes mean suspending her education. For others among the 17,000 students, the extra $995 annually will mean looking for part-time jobs or pursuing financial aid more fervently. To some, it may mean looking for another school.

An obvious and nearby option are the county’s community colleges, which will likely see an enrollment surge next year when higher fees go into effect at UC and Cal State campuses, officials said.

“I think it can’t help but increase the demand in enrollment for us,” said Philip W. Borst, president of Fullerton College. “Even if our fees triple, it still would be a bargain compared to a UC school now.”

To freshman Mary Likins, 18, the idea of attending a community college at least during summers is not new, but it also is not a pleasant one. Because of the bureaucracy of transferring credit, extra book costs and the likely crowd of other students seeking admission, community colleges are a less than exciting prospect, she said.

Most of the students said they would go to a community college temporarily only to get classes that can be transferred to a university later but cost less.

Besides, Likins said, the students should not be the ones having to look at alternatives. Instead, education officials should be directing money away from capital improvements and even staff salaries to keep the costs down.

“I’m just starting out, too, so things don’t look too good for me,” said Likins, a premed student from Simi Valley. “I’m going to be here awhile, so it’ll probably go up again.”

Likins said her tuition will be paid for with money she saved from jobs she worked while in high school, bonds given to her as she grew up, and by her parents.

“I haven’t talked about this with my parents yet, either,” she said. Because she is taking 20 units in biological science courses, she said it’s unlikely she could maintain a part-time job. “So we’re going to talk about it over spring break. I’m sure they won’t be happy about it.”

Senior Yeun Korman, 23, will have only one semester under the increased rates before he graduates with degrees in biology and political science. And, although he calls it an unpopular stance, he said he encourages his fellow students to accept the hike as inevitable.

Students should step back and examine the true costs and value of education, Korman said. As a former resident of Germany, Japan and Vietnam, he said he knows firsthand that even with the higher fees, students are still getting a better bargain here than they could overseas.

“I feel sorry for the students that have to work so hard to stay in school, and I know a lot of students think it’s unfair, but, for the money, it’s still the best and most inexpensive education you can get,” Korman said.

Korman admits his point of view might be different if he had to pay for his schooling himself.

“The bottom line, I guess, is it’s not my money, so it doesn’t affect me as much as it does other people,” he said. “If I was paying, I would probably be more upset.”

To computer science junior Stanley Burroughs, it is difficult not to be upset. After taking a year off from school to work as a roofer, he saved enough to return this semester. Now, he said, he may have to find a cheaper place to get a degree.

“After all the protests, all the people telling them how bad this is, they still raised it higher,” he said. “It’s depressing. I’m looking at community colleges now.”

Burroughs may find long lines. Higher enrollment at community colleges also might mean reducing some types of classes and increasing the number of others.

“Most community colleges already are serving more students than the state is paying us for,” Borst said.

John McIntyre, a spokesman for Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, said community colleges will be an attractive alternative for lower-division college students once tuitions are increased at the UC and Cal State schools. The fees will increase next year between $480 and $1,788 a year.

“It’s always frustrating for us in education when fees are increased and students are discouraged by the higher costs,” McIntyre said, “because we think that one of the ways to solve our economic and social ills is through education.”

To Guerrero, that discouragement is greater because of her choice to become an educator. Now, with that plan on hold, she said it’s difficult to be optimistic.

“I really want to come back, but what if it gets even more expensive? You would think they could stop building things all over campus, or that the administrators would take pay cuts,” she said. “It would be easier for an administrator to go without a few things than it is for a student who doesn’t have anything.”