College Fee Increases

* More fee increases for California students? Where will it end? When we have to pay as much as Harvard students?

Times are rough and an annual fee increase may be justified; but not to the extent proposed. Thank goodness I graduate in June--I couldn’t afford UCI much longer. Must students riot and buildings burn before bureaucrats in Sacramento realize that our backs are breaking under fees and educational costs?

For the past six years I have lived below the poverty line and have mortgaged my future to pay my college expenses. The public would be outraged if another group were financially raped the way that students have been for the last four years. So I ask, where is the outrage? If the state refuses to adequately fund higher education, then perhaps we need to reduce the size of the system. We can’t continue Band-Aid approaches of arbitrarily raising student fees and cutting faculty salaries. Can’t anyone see the clouds of backlash forming on the horizon?

BEN JARVIS

Irvine