Which Way, L.A.?
UC Committee Moves Forward with Tuition Hike
The new President of the University of California, Janet Napolitano, has said she doesn’t want a “shoot out” with Governor Brown, but they do have “different visions.” Today, those visions were in stark conflict as a committee of UC regents voted to increase tuition over the next five years despite Brown’s opposition.
The new President of the University of California, Janet Napolitano, has said she doesn’t want a “shoot out” with Governor Brown, but they do have “different visions.” Today, with a crowd of angry students outside the building in San Francisco, those visions were in stark conflict as a committee of UC regents voted to increase tuition by five percent a year for the next five years despite Brown’s opposition. The full board will decide the issue tomorrow. Napolitano’s push to raise student tuition comes after a 20 percent increase in administrative salaries. Napolitano herself gets $570,000 a year. Governor Brown, who voted against the raise, questioned the idea that high salaries are needed to maintain the quality of a public institution. There’s competition between their different “visions” with students caught in the middle. We hear what the trade-offs are for student access, support from the state, Napolitano’s salary -- and the quality of a great research institution.
Photo: UC Berkeley student Matthew Lewis