Dear Editor,

The 2010 California gubernatorial election will be held on Nov. 2 to choose the governor of California. The higher education plan is the number one criterion when I evaluate the candidates, especially because I’m going to transfer to UC hopefully next summer. I can’t afford further tuition fee increases. The two top candidates, Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman, had their first debate on Sep. 29. I watched their debate on education on YouTube. A UC Davis student asked whether they would roll back the funding cut to the UC, CSU and community college systems. Both candidates addressed the importance of higher education. They also said they empathize with students. However, none of them made any promise to reduce tuition fees. 

“Would I roll all the fees back? Not my first year with $9 billion deficits … I certainly don’t want to see them go up,” Brown said. “Yes, I care about the university system. I try hold down the fees the best I can, but we are at tough time, and we all have to sacrifice,” he added.

Whitman answered, “I want to reduce the cost of this government, and take $1 billion and put into the UC system.” 

That sounds good to me. But when the moderator asked whether Whitman would use this money to hold the fees high in the future or roll back the fee, she said that she would let the chancellors decide how to use this money for the system; whether to invest into research, faculty or reduce fees.

It sounds like none of them made any promise to reduce fees. We should consider ourselves lucky if fees don’t go up next year. So far, I don’t believe any of the candidates will help me finish my UC degree. I guess the only thing I can do is to work hard and graduate as soon as possible before another 10 percent fee increase.

Vaimin Shum

Accounting  major