UC students face fee hikes and class cuts

Oakland Tribune reports:

University of California students may have trouble finding the classes they need next year, but they likely will be paying more for the ones they do take.

Trying to defray an expected budget shortfall, UC administrators are cutting courses and graduate-student support for the 2008-09 school year. On top of that, UC regents next week are expected to approve fee increases averaging more than 7 percent.

At UC Berkeley, about 1,500 students will not be able to take Chinese, Japanese or Korean language courses because budget cuts are preventing the school from retaining some lecturers. The course scarcity means that classes will be restricted to students from the College of Letters and Science, said Alan Tansman, chairman of the department of East Asian languages and culture.

For scientists and business majors, Asian languages are vital, he said.

"Learning these languages is like a skill set," he said. The budget cuts are "cutting much deeper than just the humanities."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed giving the 10-campus UC system $417 million less than it requested from him, part of a statewide budget-slashing spree in response to California's estimated $20 billion shortfall. Schwarzenegger's revised budget proposal is due next week.

UC leaders have not decided how much they will ask regents to raise student fees at next week's meeting at UCLA, but Schwarzenegger's budget assumes a 7 percent increase for undergraduates