UC abandons mission

Regarding “International students get shafted” (Opinion, Nov. 20): Columnist Nuala Bishari misunderstands that the “shafting” has long happened. The state long ago abandoned the principles on which the University of California was founded.

The original concept was to have tuition-free highest-quality education for the top 12% of California high-school graduates. Because the state stopped providing sufficient funding, UC had to raise revenues and chose to do so by increasing fees and reducing the number of in-state students to be able to charge more to out-of-state and international students.

I’m a double alumnus, and I stopped making donations to UC when it became clear it was trying to operate by maximizing income from out-of-state students.

Had the state kept the promise that then-Gov. Pat Brown originally made, fees would be a lot less — and the number of international students would be much smaller.

Perhaps those who are really getting “shafted” are the Californians who can no longer get into UC or can no longer afford the fees.

Max Sherman, Moraga