How many students does it take to stop the California fee hikes?

Hilda Morales
California Progress Report
Nov 16, 2007

These days the price of gasoline is about the only thing that rises as fast as the price of tuition.

With mandatory student fees at UC and Cal State almost double what they were just six years ago, students and parents simply cannot afford these hikes. And California's economy--which relies on an educated workforce for the success of its high tech and bio tech industries--can't afford the fee hikes either.

So this week, students in the UC and CSU systems filed a ballot initiative with the Attorney General, the first step in our attempt to qualify for the November 2008 ballot.

The initiative would freeze tuition for 5 years, prevent any future increases from exceeding the inflation index, place a small income surtax on income over $1 million to raise revenue specifically to educate students, and set up an accountability process for UC and CSU administrators to report how the new revenue is spent.

Putting a fee freeze measure on the ballot will also help turn out record numbers of young voters.

Although students have been organizing against these fee hikes for over a decade, we haven't been able to get the legislature to pass a fee policy, and we haven't been able to get the UC Regents and CSU Trustees to demand more state investment. Students need to try something new.

Here's how we're a different kind of campaign:

1) We're student-led. We're showing the Regents, the Trustees and Legislature that students are organized and involved with the electoral process.

2) We're volunteer-driven. Our team of students, parents, and other concerned volunteers is running this campaign because we believe in this issue, not to get paid per signature.

3) We're wired. We know something most political consultants don't...how to reach every one of our friends using new technology. Candidates have started to figure this out. We're one of the first ballot initiative campaigns to blaze the trail.

4) We're keeping it (sort of) cheap. Hey, we know how to survive on Ramen noodles. The reality of California's political process, of course, involves lots of money. But we think that the money we're spending is best spent on building a powerful organizing network that can build a viable campaign.

5) We have a lot of heart. We're not cynical, and we're ready to make real change!

We welcome help - from volunteer signature gathering to financial contributions. We recently launched an interactive website which features the full text of the initiative, Q&As, and how to volunteer and contribute.

Hilda Morales is a current senior at UC Berkeley majoring in Social Welfare. She transferred from Evergreen Valley Community College before attending Berkeley and organizing with Tuition Relief Now.