Original Source: http://www.educationisaright.org/

UC STUDENTS SUE REGENTS OVER FEE HIKES

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2003.

     Today, a group of University of California (UC) students filed a class action lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents in San Francisco Superior Court, seeking to prevent portions of recent university fee increases from taking effect and seeking refunds of other recent increases.

     The students claim that the Regents breached contracts for the price of spring semester and summer term when UC schools raised spring and summer tuition after students had already registered and been billed for classes. Those last-minute increases did not provide enough notice, leaving students and families without enough time to plan for them.

     The students also claim that the university broke a promise to professional students not to raise professional degree fees for continuing students. Last week, the Regents increased those fees for professional students by 25 to 30% -- almost $2,000 a year for law, business, and medical students.

     At a July 17th, 2003 meeting, the Regents approved the latest fee hike to cover budget problems. In total, students are facing up to 45% fee increases from last year.

     "I don't know if I'll be able to enroll in school this semester," said Mo Kashmiri, a third-year law student at UC Berkeley. "My bill for this fall will be $2,500 higher than last fall, most of which is for a fee the university had promised not to raise. The Regents need to live up to their promises."

     The university had previously told professional students like Mr. Kashmiri that the professional degree fee - which makes up a large portion of the tuition and fees charged to law, medicine, and other professional students - would remain constant throughout each student's enrollment in the school.

     In addition, the suit alleges that UC's recent practice of last-minute fee increases breached contracts with students who had already registered and been billed. At Berkeley, students were notified of fee increases only five days before summer school started. At UCSF, students received notice of fee increases after the summer quarter had already begun. "Families and students need time to plan their finances," said Janet Burrell, a parent of a student at UC Davis. "I've got three kids in college, including two who are going to junior college for now because we can't afford to send them all at the same time. This just makes it tougher."

     Students from UC Berkeley, UCSF, UC Davis, and UCLA are currently plaintiffs in the suit. The students are being represented by Andrew D. Freeman and Deborah Thompson Eisenberg of the Maryland firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy, and Jonathan Weissglass of the San Francisco firm Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain.