The state has opted to cut 20%, or $650 million, of funding each from both of the University of California and the California State University systems. For the first time this fall, the University of California school system will take in more revenue from students’ tuitions than from state funding. According to Nathan Brostrom, executive vice president for business operations at the University of California, tuition has increased 18.3% since November 2010 to cover the state’s cuts and an additional $350 million in mandatory costs--more than half of which are from employee pension and retirement contributions. An increase in tuition makes up approximately a quarter of the billion-dollar shortfall.
“There’s a short-term crisis and a serious long-term problem that the institutions will face,” says Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the division of government and public affairs of the American Council on Education. “The budget cuts we’re seeing in California are bad news for students, they’re bad news for the state and they’re a terrible blow to the institutions.”
