UCs’ In-State Students Should Have Priority

FARRAH LIU
Staff Writer

The University of California (UC) system has set a new record for the number of out-of-state students attending this fall. Not only will UCs receive large amounts of out-of-state freshmen this year, but they will also be collecting millions of dollars in return. Out-of-state students have to pay almost triple the amount of tuition in-state students have at $12,900. The escalating number of out-of-state admissions has brought on the question of the validity of prioritizing certain students just for the sake of extra funding, when students’ education should be their main priority.

The admission rates of Californians are dropping because UCs are not receiving enough revenue from the state to support all of their students. Since the state is not providing the funds, UCs’ solution is to accept out-of-state students who pay larger tuition fees.

However, the high salaries of coaches and top administrators show the lack of prioritizing in UC funds. Although UCs say their mission is to educate Californians, the amount of money administrators and coaches receive is excessive. An example would be UCs’ highest-paid employee last year, Jeff Tedford, the head coach for football at UC Berkeley. Tedford earns $2.3 million per year just to coach a football team. UCs should cut any unnecessary funding towards administrators so that there is more revenue to support the students’ education, which should be their main priority in the first place.

Since out-of-state students have to pay for both traveling fees and the full cost of UC tuition with little to no financial aid, UCs are favoring applicants with a higher socioeconomic status. UCs are aiming for students who do not need financial aid and that causes discrimination between the rich and poor. This in turn widens the opportunity gap even more.

UCs are accepting more out-of-state applicants when they do not know how to spend their revenue wisely in the first place. Accepting more out-of-state applicants over qualified in-state students show the UCs lack of judgement. Californian students are unfairly taking the toll of the UC system’s new revenue resource.