Frustrated, angry, desperate and worried; these are only some of the many feelings that students at Cerritos College are experiencing due to all the budget cuts and fee increases.
A few weeks before the Fall 2009 semester began, tuition increased to $26 per unit as opposed to the prior tuition of $20 per unit.
The student health fee also increased by $10, therefore making the new health fee $26 instead of the previous fee of only $16.
Although these increased fees are affecting students all across the state of Californina, some students like anthropology major Jennifer Padilla feel that community colleges are being affected the most.
Because UCs recently stopped accepting Spring enrollments, those students who were supposed to attend universities are now forced to resort back to the only educational institutions they can either afford or are accepting new enrollements, and that is the community college institutions, said Padilla.
“What’s happening now is that community colleges are taking in not only students right out of high school and students who are continuing their education, ” she said, “but are also now forced to accept those students who were not able to get into UC schools. Not to mention the fact that there are so many other people who are going back to school to receive some sort of degree because they can’t find jobs anywhere.”
Many students are finding themselves extremely frustrated and desperate because of how cramped community colleges, such as Cerritos, are.
Biology major Agustin Ferrer recently turned to Cerritos as his last resort because he was not able to enroll in any classes at ELAC, Cypress and El Camino College.
“I came here in hopes of trying to finish my last two classes before obtaining my Associate’s Degree,” he said, “and fortunately I was able to enroll in those classes.”
After paying his fee of $116 in cash, because he does not receive financial aid, Ferrer thought he was all set to go on Aug. 17, his first day of school.
He explains, “I got to my first class and found out that I had been dropped because I owed $40. I did not even know that the unit fee as well as the health fee had increased. Had I known, I would have paid and avoided getting dropped from my classes.”
Now, Ferrer admits he will most likely quit school for a while and try to find a job, any job, because he is No. 9 on both wait lists and doubts he will be able to get into the required classes.
Monique Valentine, business major, finds herself very angry and upset that some of her friends were also forced into the same predicament Ferrer was.
Although she is not experiencing the fee increase first-hand because she receives financial aid, she still feels it it unfair to not notify students of the increase and offer them an opportunity to pay and then drop them due to owed money they were not even aware they owed.
As if the $6 per unit increase was not enough, students now have to deal with the anxiety of paying all the required fees in a period of seven days before being dropped from their classes.
Students like Penny Chavez wished they had a more extended time period for students to pay their classes.
The business major lives on her own and has a part-time job that barely pays enough for her to afford her rent and utility expenses.
“The day I enrolled and found out about the increases I had just finished paying all my bills. I had $7 left in my bank account and had seven days to come up with the $26 health fee and avoid getting dropped,” she said.
She admits the increases as well as the time period given to pay these fees had her worried, anxious, and seriously considering dropping out of school.
“Fortunately,” she said, “I borrowed money from a friend who lent me enough to pay for the health fee as well as my books and to have something to eat for the next few weeks.”
However, she said, “Now I’m in a few hundred dollars debt.”
Although most students would like to blame or think the school is to blame, it really isn’t the school’s fault, said history major Brian Rolas.
“Everybody wants to point fingers and blame Cerritos but it’s not the school’s fault,” he said. “It is a victim of the budget cuts too. It is losing programs and has to cope with the situation the best it can.”
Student Trustee Felipe Grimaldo believes the budget cuts are harsh but are also necessary.
He recently attended a retreat for all California community college student trustees where they discussed the budget situation as well as the fee increases and what they could do to help students.
It is not fair that the fees were increased and students were only given seven days to pay their fees, he said. But compared to other schools, community colleges don’t have it that bad considering they don’t require thousands of dollars in tuition and give their students more than two days to pay their fees before they are dropped.
Unlike most students, few students believe that the increase will actually help the school.
Business major Martin Muro believe that with these increases students are going to actually attend their classes and take them seriously.
He said, “I would rather pay a few extra bucks and know I will be in a class with serious college students who know to take advantage of the education they are paying for, instead of a bunch of immature people who have nothing to do but come to a college campus and waste everybody’s time.”
