UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau calls for $2 billion student aid endowment.

UC confronts affordability challenge

The University of California provides an affordable undergraduate education to low- and middle-income students, but it faces challenges in maintaining that responsibility, according to a UC work group.

UC's enrollment of low-income students has not declined despite fee increases. Last year, 63 percent of UC undergraduates received financial assistance including loans, grants, scholarships and work-study support totaling $1.3 billion.

But rising costs mean that the university must take more steps to address affordability, according to preliminary findings from the work group, chaired by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. UC should raise a $2 billion endowment over the next 10 years for extra financial aid for low- and middle-income students, he told Regents at their January meeting. The Workgroup on Undergraduate Affordability also recommends expanding the Cal Grant program and increasing undergraduate return-to-aid.

"Public universities need a new model for financial aid," Birgeneau wrote in an op-ed piece published in USA Today. "A public-private partnership in which state governments match private donations to endowments for needs-based financial aid would be most effective."

The work group will now seek comments from key constituents on its draft report and then submit its final report and recommendations to the Regents.