UC Trims Fall Term Fee Increase to $345 : Education: Students who have already paid will not get refunds yet. Rebates are planned for next year--unless state financial problems affect the university budget.

Making good on their word to state lawmakers, the UC Board of Regents on Friday voted to limit undergraduate fee increases to $345 for the coming academic year, instead of the $620 it had approved earlier.

But the vote came too late for most UC students, who have already paid their fall bills based on the higher fees. University officials said they will hold on to the extra money and give rebates or discounts next year to make up the difference, but they warned that they may not if the state’s finances take a nose dive by November.

The reason for the university’s budgetary two-step rests with the $40.9-billion state budget, signed into law earlier this month.

In January, before the spending plan was hammered out, the regents looked at budgetary projections and approved the $620 fee increase for undergraduates, an 18% hike that brought the basic UC bill to $4,347 a year.

During the summer, however, Gov. Pete Wilson and lawmakers asked university officials to limit the undergraduate increase to 10%, or a yearly bill of $4,100, in exchange for a slightly higher appropriation to the university.

Despite that good turn, university officials say that the state could face new financial problems in November and that the overpayment by students could not prudently be refunded now. After November, if the UC budget is out of danger, university officials said they will lower undergraduate fees to $1,311 for each of the winter and spring quarters, effectively charging students a 10% increase for the entire year.

Students who graduate or leave UC after the fall term will be sent a $92 rebate, officials said.

UC President Jack W. Peltason said the university could not give students an immediate refund because “the bills have gone out” and financial aid packages have already been figured according to the higher fee increase.

“The financial aid will be a mess,” said Dennis Galligani, assistant vice president for student academic services.

Peltason’s plan would also hold off giving university employees a 3% cost-of-living increase, totaling more than $40 million, until November.

Despite the change in undergraduate fees, the regents did not go along with legislative suggestions to drop a $2,000 fee that new graduate students enrolling in five professional schools will be forced to pay this fall.

In other action, the regents gave final approval to restructuring of the UCLA professional schools. The graduate schools of library and information sciences, social welfare and architecture and urban planning will be dismantled and a new school of public policy and social research created. No academic programs or degrees will be lost, but administrative overhead will be trimmed $7 million a year, UCLA officials say.