Plan advances to increase University of California tuition

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - The University of California would raise tuition by more than 25 percent over five years under a plan passed on Wednesday by a committee of the system's governing board, a move strongly opposed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. The full Board of Regents will vote on Thursday on the proposal, part of an escalating and public contest of wills between Brown and Janet Napolitano, the former U.S. homeland security chief who is now the university's president. "Governor, you're going to vote 'No,' and I understand that," Napolitano said during discussion of the fee increase. "But ... this plan needs to move forward." Brown, one of 26 regents, was flanked by several of the state's top elected leaders, who also serve as regents and are expected to vote against the measure. Outside, hundreds of students angrily protested the proposal, confronting regents as they entered the University of California at San Francisco facility where the meeting was held. The 89-year-old former chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Karl Pister, attending the meeting on behalf of former chancellors who support the tuition hike, said he was knocked down during a tense confrontation with protesters. "I've been with the University of California for 62 years," said Pister, who was a professor and dean of engineering at U.C. Berkeley for 44 years before becoming chancellor at Santa Cruz. "Today was the first time I was ever abused by protesters." Under Napolitano's plan, the university would raise tuition at the prestigious 10-campus system by 5 percent in each of the next five years, starting with a jump of $612 next year that would bring the total to $12,804. The system has some 233,000 students enrolled. The proposal was released in a newspaper opinion piece written by Napolitano and regent Bruce D. Varner two days after the Nov. 4 election returned Brown to an unprecedented fourth term in office. It has alienated the fiscally moderate governor, who had pledged to increase funding for the system only if administrators would freeze tuition. At the committee meeting on Wednesday, he urged regents to develop ways to cut costs and build reserves for the university, rather than hiking tuition for students. Funding for the system was cut dramatically during the economic downturn, but has been increasing gradually in recent years. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Walsh)