For the fourth consecutive year, students of the University of California will once again be slapped with a steep increase in their tuition fees, administrators said.

Leaders of the UC voted yesterday at a condensed teleconference Regents Board meeting to increase undergraduate tuition fees for the 2009-2010 school year by 9.3 percent – or approximately $662. The approved fee hikes will go into effect this summer.

The measure garnered 17 votes in favor and four against. Regents John Garamendi, Eddie Island, Odessa Johnson and D’Artagnan Scorza, the student regent, voted against the increase, citing concerns that the UC is continuing a dark trend of placing its economic woes on the shoulders of its student body.

According to a press release from the office of John Garamendi, California’s Lieutenant Governor – a UC Regent by virtue of his position — student fees at the UC have more than doubled since 1990.

UC President Mark Yudof pointed a finger at the capitol in Sacramento, blaming the state government for this most recent spike in UC tuition. The state budget, he said, has left the University $450 million in the hole. This deficit, according to the UC Office of the President, is comprised of $115 million in new cuts, $122 million in under-funded enrollments and $213 million in under-funded mandatory costs for employee health benefits, utility costs and additional inflationary costs.

“We [originally] submitted a budget to the state with a zero dollar fee increase.” Yudof said. “That didn’t last 24 hours.”

Without the fee increase, Yudof said prior to the vote, the UC would remain hundreds of millions of dollars further in debt. The student fee increases, a UCOP press release said, were a last resort to protect the academic programs and student services offered by the UC.

“If this doesn’t pass … I simply do not know where else to go,” Yudof said with a sigh, “We have frozen all the high-level salaries, we have done everything within our means.”

The student fee hike, according to UCOP, will generate approximately $152 million in revenue, and has $54.2 million designated for undergraduate and graduate student financial aid. The rest will be used to cover state budget reductions, student support services, mental health services and other mandatory cost increases.

In addition to approving the undergraduate fee increase, the Regents also voted to appoint new chancellors at the UC Davis and UC San Francisco campuses.

Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellman, a former UCSF professor and one of Fortune 500 magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business,” was chosen by the board to be the next chancellor of UCSF.

At the meeting, Desmond-Hellman said the appointment was especially meaningful given her history with UCSF.

“The UCSF chancellorship obviously has a lot of personal meaning to me since it means coming back to a university that literally changed my life,” Desmond-Hellmann said. “I thank you very much for the honor and the opportunity.”

Desmond-Hellman, whose tenure will begin on Aug. 3, will receive an annual salary of $450,000.

Linda Katehi, a native of Greece and current provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was nominated to the position of chancellor at UC Davis.

Speaking to the Regents, Katehi said she was honored to have been appointed.

“I totally feel humbled and very privileged to have been named the next chancellor of UC Davis.” Katehi said. “The work that has been done at the university by the faculty and students and also [everyone] else that has supported it has made this institution…very well-known in terms of educational programs, research and engagement.”

Katehi, who received her doctorate in engineering from UCLA, will receive an annual salary of $400,000. Her appointment begins Aug. 17.