UC Berkeley sophomore Aarti Jaggi, a materials science and engineering student from Houston, said her friends sometimes debate whether Californians or nonresidents have a more difficult time getting into the university.
Representatives from UC at the hearing were caught off-guard by McCarty's budget proposal, which passed unanimously and will advance to the full Assembly budget committee for consideration.
"However, I would be open to continuing a conversation," he said.
UC is already in the midst of a three-year plan to increase California enrollment by 10,000 students, though the UC plan will also add 3,000 more nonresidents to help cover the cost. For enrolling 5,000 more Californians next fall, the university is set to receive a $25 million budget bonus from the state.
Across the street from the Capitol, UC's governing board met for the first day of its bimonthly meeting, where the university continued to push back on the state auditor's findings.
Stephen Handel, associate vice president of undergraduate admissions, said the report was "based on faulty foundational assumptions leading to a series of inaccurate conclusions." He said it failed to consider that resident enrollment slowed in the absence of new state funding rather than the increase in out-of-state students, whose supplemental fees pay for their entire education and allow the university to admit them in addition to, not instead of, Californians.
"We are unequivocally committed to giving precedence to California students at the UC," added Monica Lozano, chair of the Board of Regents.
But as some dismissed the audit as a political attack, Regent John A. Pérez, former Assembly speaker, countered that it was an indication the university needed to do a better job of explaining the value, both fiscal and educational, it derives from having nonresidents on campus.