At the upcoming University of California Board of Regents July 22 meeting, the Regents will be asked to approve a new model of tuition and financial aid in a cohort-based plan that would raise tuition beginning with the future class of 2022-23.
The proposal, introduced at the Regents’ May 13 meeting, would increase tuition for the future class of 2022-23 by 2% from the previous class’s tuition plus inflation, capping the raise at no more than 6% and calculating average inflation over a three-year rolling period, according to the meeting action item.
The future class of 2023-24 would see a 1.5% plus inflation increase, 2024-25 would face a 1% plus inflation increase and 2025-26 would face a .5% plus inflation increase. The class of 2026-27 onward would only face an increase for inflation, the action item stated. The proposal would not affect current students or the entering class of 2021-22.
According to the proposal, the tuition raise would be“supporting campus operations to maintain and improve the quality of a UC education … providing unprecedented tuition stability and predictability for students and parents; and enhancing financial aid and affordability for students with financial need.”
However, UC Santa Barbara External Vice President for Statewide Affairs Esmeralda Quintero-Cubillan — who called the proposed increase “predatory” — is organizing students to understand and speak out against the proposal.
Quintero-Cubillan’s office has been hosting Zoom seminars — with one upcoming on Friday at 11 a.m. — to make students aware of the raise and educate them on how to speak out against it at the upcoming Regents meeting, either by written-in response or via public comment.
“This is going to impact a few groups of students in particular — one, out-of-state and international students because they pay out-of-state tuition and are already overly burdened by the cost of tuition,” they said in an interview with the Nexus.
Quintero-Cubillan also criticized the proposal’s promise of enhanced financial aid as a way to offset increased tuition for low-income students.
“The UC cannot guarantee nor promise that the amount of aid generated is actually enough to support the student population that will be disenfranchised by this tuition,” she said.
“The problem about why this is the tuition hike to end all tuition hikes is because it does not end,” they continued. “If this passes, tuition will go up every year. Regardless of whether or not the Regents hold a vote, regardless of whether or not students protest, it will continue to go up.”
