UCOP SharePoint Feedback Regarding 2013-14 PDST Proposals

Recently, I was informed that the University of California Office of the President has set up a SharePoint portal to obtain feedback from all interested members regarding the Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition. I felt that the UC Davis PDST proposal missed a lot of the important work that I and others have done to organize students around this subject. To provide my side of the story, I submitted extensive feedback. It details my frustration with the administration over the PDST and budget decision making process here at King Hall and across the UC system. Click "read more" to see the full letter.

Class of 2013 Student Debt and Income Levels Survey

The budget committee had our first meeting today, and we have hit the ground running.

Below is a survey we would like 3Ls at King Hall to fill out on their current debt and expected income level upon graduation. This information will enable us to update the current statistics on the debt to income ratio of King Hall students. It will also allow us to obtain more detail about our entire class profile, instead of the averages provided to us.

We have a goal of 75% of the class of 2013 to respond to this survey. If you are a 3L at King Hall, please take one minute to fill it out.

To fill out on separate page, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1G0mUw3aM_XJwTnFtK6QdeoEapIYjYWDwizV1s-TGbso/viewform

Introduction to the student budget committee

The students of King Hall have finally put together a student committee with the sole purpose of investigating the UC Davis King Hall Budget. This committee has a wide charge, collecting information on student fees and expenditures at King Hall, publishing information on a wide range of topics, and advocating on behalf of students to keep higher education in California open to all.

This committee has taken awhile to be put in place. But now that we're here, I hope that the committee will maintain a space in the institution where students, administrators, and faculty can engage in an informed discussion on the budget of King Hall.

One of the first issues to tackle is the Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition (PDST). This is a fee added to nine programs here at UC Davis, and any Professional program UC wide. Here is a graphic of the fees at UC Davis. The yellow indicates the PDST level.

 

It is easy to see that this fee represents a large portion of the cost of attending professional programs at UC Davis,especially for law students. This fee has gained a lot of attention in the past, and has been the subject of at least two settlements with the Regents.

This fee is set by each program's administration. For our purposes, the King Hall administration. Regent Policy 3103 requires that students are consulted on this process and that their views are represented on the Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition plan submitted to the school's Chancellor and Regents.

King Hall students largely feel that this consultation process has been severely lacking. The PDST plans contain representations that the students disagree with. One example is the selection of comparison institutions used to justify the current cost of attending King Hall. This infographic demonstrates that there is a wide disparity between the comparison schools chosen by the administration, and ones that outside observers would deem comparable. 

This, and other issues, will be the initial focus of the student budget committee at King Hall. 



-Heather Cantua
Interim Student Budget Committee Chair
King Hall Class of 2013
hpcantua@ucdavis.edu