COMMENTARIES ON CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES : The university system took more than 100 years to refine. Let’s not dismantle it overnight.

For two years I resented my father for one simple remark: “If you can prove to me that Stanford will give twice the education of a UC for twice the price, you can go there.”

I was at the end of my senior year, facing the choice between Stanford and several University of California campuses.

As soon as I heard my dad’s decree, I knew my decision had already been made.

Try as I might, I failed to demonstrate that a private school would give me a better education.

My pragmatic father and I both knew that a UC education was not only a good value, but was also one of the best in the world.

When I began college at UC Irvine in 1989, my disappointment from being at “just a UC” was quickly replaced by excitement and pride.

My classes were challenging and campus activities abounded. I joined the speech and debate team and traveled throughout the Western United States, representing my school in intercollegiate competition.

But now as I face commencement this week, I am both excited about the future and saddened about the recent past.

Although my experience at UCI has been positive overall, I have seen many changes in the last four years.

The speech and debate team was one of the many victims of the state budget crisis that triggered a series of university funding cuts. The quality of life on campus began to decline due to reduced resources for facility maintenance; the library opened for fewer hours every year. Classes also became larger because the number offered diminished.

The most dramatic effects of the crisis in the UC system are financial.

By 1993-94, student fees will have doubled in three years. Students who protest these increases are not just concerned about principles--for many the soaring cost of a college education is a real hardship.

Now the university faculty and staff are also paying the price, as their salaries will be cut by 5% next year and work force reductions of 5,000 employees continue throughout the system.

The real loser in this budget battle, however, is the state of California and its residents.

UC research results in new technologies that are vital for our state economy.

UCI alone employs almost 12,000 Orange County residents and has had an economic impact of more than $1 billion for the last fiscal year alone.

Will today’s leaders go down in state history as the generation that delivered the deathblow to UC? The university has taken more than a hundred years to become what it is today. Let’s not dismantle it overnight.

As for me, after graduating from UCI, I’ll enter a doctoral program in sociology at Stanford.

When I told my father of my acceptance this time, he made no comment regarding the value of a public versus private education. We are both afraid of what the future holds for UC.