The University of California is preparing to ask students to pay $2,500 more over two years, a plan that has drawn protest at two major campuses, reported the Associated Press. President Mark Yudof told reporters Nov. 18 he couldn’t rule out raising student fees again if the state is unable to meet his request for an additional $913 million next year for the 10-campus system. The university’s governing board is expected to approve a plan that will boost undergraduate fees, the equivalent of tuition, by 32 percent in two stages by 2010. The proposal was met with student protests across the state that led to 14 arrests at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus. At the University of California, Berkeley, more than 1,000 demonstrators condemned the pending fee boost and high salaries for university administrators. After a series of deep cuts in state aid, and with Sacramento facing a nearly $21 billion budget gap over the next year and a half, Board of Regents members said there was no option to higher fees.
