University of California Remains a Bargain - NYTimes.com

University of California Remains a Bargain - NYTimes.com

Even as Costs Rise, University of California Remains a Bargain

Alexander Dobranic, an undergraduate politics major at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, is not taking math this spring. But he knows when numbers — like the tuition and fee increases that have led to protests and vandalism on U.C. campuses this winter — don’t add up.

“We’re only being billed a couple hundred extra dollars,” Mr. Dobranic said, questioning what all the fuss is about. The first of two waves of increases have hit University of California campuses, and for some the extra cost is less than their daily large soy latte at Peet’s. The first bump is as little as $4 more a day — a small price to pay to protect one of the best educations in America from yet another round of what have been relentless, demoralizing cuts caused by the state’s fiscal crisis.

Mr. Dobranic did not want his education interrupted over such a sum, so he started a protest against the protests: a Facebook event called “How about we DON’T protest on March 4th,” a scheduled day of demonstrations.

To his surprise, instead of being vilified, Mr. Dobranic said hundreds of students joined him