Paranoia and Prognostications (About Fees)

Maybe it's because of last year's uproar over student fees, maybe it's because Dean Edley seems to be using the vaguest possible language short of "meeting... come if you want", but today's email from DE seriously creeped me out:

Subject: Town Hall with Dean Edley - 11/16/10, 12:45pm, Booth Auditorium

Dear students:

I write to invite you to attend a Student Town Hall. This will be an opportunity for the community to discuss the overall state of the law school as well as student fees. The meeting takes place next Tuesday during the lunch break.

Student Town Hall
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
12:45pm
Booth Auditorium

Christopher Edley, Jr.

By itself, the email seems mundane enough. But that's the problem: this time last year, students were just learning about larger-than-anticipated fee hikes... hikes to the tune of 22% (for residents), that took many by surprise and caused a great deal of frustration (although as a concession to Armen, it's true that information surrounding proposed hikes had been circulating for some time.) What followed was a week of student "strikes" (or were they boycotts?) and a hastily-planned Town Hall wherein Edley addressed a large group of fired-up law students, who came equipped with red and green signs that said things like "I agree" or "Are you kidding??"

Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but DE's email announcement of this year's Town Hall struck me as purposefully understated - the kind of half-assed due diligence that someone in the school administration can point to after a fee-bomb drops and say, "Hey, we invited you kids to the Town Hall. Remember?"

There's no question that fees will go up this year. But DE's vague email sparked my curiosity about just how big this year's fee hikes might be. On November 8, President Yudof issued an open letter to the campus community detailing a proposed systemwide fee increase of 8%. But the letter didn't mention professional fees... so after (very little) sleuthing, I dug up the 2011-12 professional fees budget proposal that the UC Regents will be voting on next week. Specifically:

Law (Berkeley – 12 percent increase in 2011-12).

Berkeley Law plans to use new professional degree fee funds to substantially expand its Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) offerings and a larger financial aid program, fund six new faculty, pay debt service on new construction and renovations to the law school complex, and expand public interest and public service career programs. Berkeley Law has recently overhauled its financial aid programs and provides “substantially greater assistance to students from low-income families…. [Berkeley Law] return[s] more of our tuition to students in the form of financial aid than any of our competitor institutions,” although student debt has risen in recent years. The program has seen “no statistically significant change in our minority enrollment since fees started to rise seriously in 2003-04” Enrollment of underrepresented minorities at Berkeley Law has been between 14 and 17 percent since 2005. Berkeley Law’s total proposed charges for 2011-12 are projected to be below the average charges at its public comparison programs.

So there you have it - the relevant details that DE should-have-maybe included in his email. If you're interested in discussing this proposal further, I recommend attending the Town Hall. Last year's was actually pretty fun. :)