Countywide : New Fee Hike Plan Leads UCI Students to Clothes Ranks

Students at UC Irvine shucked their old T-shirts Tuesday to protest steadily rising college fees in the University of California.

The campaign, with the motto “Take the shirts off our backs, but don’t raise our fees,” is part of a systemwide protest at all nine UC campuses. Students plan to present a stack of old T-shirts to the UC Regents at their Feb. 16 meeting in San Diego.

They will also string up a clothesline of shirts with protest slogans that were signed by students at various campuses.

“At first, we were going to collect shoes, but it’s kind of hard to get people to give them up,” said Valerie Ho, 20, a member of Associated Students at UCI. “We figure the regents will get the message.”

Fees have more than doubled since 1990 in the UC system. In fall, 1990, UCI undergraduates from California paid about $1,875 annually. Last fall, they paid about $4,325.

Students have complained that the fee increases are unreasonable and unpredictable. The regents have discussed a plan that would raise fees by a standard 10% for each of the next four years--pushing them past $6,000 by 1998.

UC officials had asked Gov. Pete Wilson for a $145-million increase in UC’s 1995-96 budget, enough to eliminate a fee increase next year. But Wilson offered to increase the budget by $36 million instead--bringing the overall UC budget to $1.89 billion.

“We know it can be painful” for students to pay higher fees, UC spokesman Mike Alva said. But “the university has been increasing the amount of grant money it provides.”

On Tuesday, students dropped off shirts at UCI’s student center and signed their names to T-shirts to show their displeasure. “I’m broke,” wrote one student. “ No mas fee hikes!” wrote another.

“It’s horrible--the school wants us to work, but the money we make they then take out of our financial aid,” said Hieu Bui, 20. “Education is a right, not a privilege.”

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Mounting Fees

If the UC Board of Regents approves a 10% increase in student fees for the 1995-96 school year, it would be the sixth increase in as many years. Student fees for UCI undergraduate:

Resident

1994-1995: $4,324.50

Non-resident

1994-1995: $12,023.50

Source: UC Irvine; Researched by CAROLINE LEMIKE / Los Angeles Times