Editor, Daily Nexus,

I sincerely hope the letter “The Reader’s Voice: Don’t Take Budget Woes Out on In-State Students” (Daily Nexus, May 23) by Mr. Bert Viloria, was a joke. Since I did not read it that way, I would like to encourage Bert to take his egocentricity back to Sesame Street. Mr. Viloria wrote of his outrage with UC President Atkinson and the student fee increase due to California budget deficits. He argued that only nonresident students should have to pay the fee, rather than have the residents penalized. Why does it make more sense for the nonresidents to pay for the California budget deficit rather than the residents – you know, the people that actually come from here? Mr. Viloria later ponders why “all those Ivy League/eastern universities and other private colleges [are] able to charge so much tuition while the UC is relegated to public school rates.” My guess as to why the UC system is relegated to public school rates is because each UC is, in fact, a public school. According to UC President Atkinson, as I understand, resident undergraduates would pay around $5,500 during 2003-04, while nonresident undergraduates will pay about $17,200. What is Mr. Viloria, an obvious resident, complaining about? He should realize that if the UC system charges out-of-state residents too much, they will go elsewhere, and in-state students will need to pay even more to make up the difference. The fact that nonresidents help subsidize the much lower resident rates should be cause for appreciation, not contempt. Just because we are neither NorCal nor SoCal, but instead NoCal, does not mean we are inferior.