INSIDE SCOOP
OPINION
SURF REPORT
FIRE DANGERS DURING WINTER PAGE 3 SILENCE OF THE GREENS PAGE 4 WASTE-HIGH WAVES PAGE 10
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 315
Santa Monica Daily Press NEW TOYS FROM TOYOTA SEE PAGE 6
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE TOUGH TIMES ISSUE
From student body president to Vermont representative BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
ter 2003 was $11 a unit, jumping to $18 the following fall. The community colleges took another hit when fees spiked to $26 in the fall of 2004. “We hope that there won’t be an increase on student tuition when the state finally makes a decision,” Santa Monica College President Dr. Chui Tsang said. “A lot of students are coming to school by holding down two to three jobs so any increase in tuition would constitute a hardship for them.” A typical college student takes about 12 units, bringing their current base tuition to about $240 a semester, which doesn’t include other health and student association fees. If the state elects to raise the fees, students could see their base go up to about $312 in the spring and $360
BURLINGTON, VT. During a time when most children were learning to ride their bikes or playing four square, Kesha Ram was plotting a future run for the White House. The 2004 Santa Monica High School graduate might not yet have a cushy seat in the Oval Office, but the view from the Vermont State Capitol from where she will legislate as a newly-elected state representative is not so bad, especially considering she’s only 22 years old. Fresh out of the University of Vermont where she graduated with bachelor’s degrees in natural resource planning and political science last spring, Ram became the youngest elected official in the state’ House of Representative recently when she won one of two seats for District Chittenden 3-4, which serves about 10,000 constituents, including part of the college campus. Ram grew up in Santa Monica, born to a Jewish mother from Illinois and a Hindu father who immigrated to the United States from India. She attended Roosevelt Elementary School where she served as the student body president, graduating on to Lincoln Middle School and Samohi where she created a campus recycling program. After receiving scholarship offers from various private New England colleges, Ram took up residency at the University of Vermont where she went on to serve as the Student Government Association president her senior year, overseeing 10,000 students and a $1.4 million budget. “I really felt like I had a lot of executive experience and also knew very well the issues of the young people that were in Burlington and make up 60 percent of the voting population in the district,” Ram said. The district also includes the old North End, which is one of Burlington’s oldest neighborhoods and has one of the highest poverty rates in the state, as well as the
SEE TUITION PAGE 7
SEE RAM PAGE 8
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
ON THE RISE: Two years after the community college fee was slashed from $26 to $20 a unit, state officials are considering restoring the tuition to its previous level, hoping to institute nearly $28 billion in budget solutions over the next 20 months. Tuition for Santa Monica College students (above) could be raised to $30 a unit in 2009-10. A typical student at SMC takes 12 units a semester.
SMC students could see tuition rise BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE The next tuition bill for students might take them on an unwanted trip down memory lane. Two years after the community college fee was slashed from $26 to $20 a unit, state officials are considering restoring the tuition to its previous level, hoping to institute nearly $28 billion in budget solutions over the next 20 months. The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), which serves as a nonpartisan fiscal and policy adviser, released a series of recommendations to address the budget gap, which includes increasing the California Community College credit fee back to $26 a unit effective Jan. 1 and raising it to $30 a unit for the 2009-10 school year. The state government sets the tuition
for all 109 community colleges. The increases will free up approximately $40 million for the remainder of the current fiscal year and $120 million next year. Officials will also consider cutting funding for certain physical education courses in which students can receive credit, such as pilates, racquetball and golf. Reducing funding for such courses will save the state about $60 million this year, according to Paul Steenhausen, the senior fiscal and policy analyst for the LAO. “We’re never happy about proposing spending cuts,” Steenhausen said. “We like to tell the legislature how to increase revenue and how to use that money.” Student fees gradually increased over the past several years until they dropped in 2006. The tuition for the spring semes-
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