Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Regarding Peter
Robinson's "The
Golden State's Me Generation" (Cross Country, March 6), the message
that students at the University of California need to get is this: At
$10,300 per year, the University of California is clearly one of the
best values in higher education in the country.

Four years at UC Berkeley
or UCLA costs about what we would pay for a single year's tuition at
Stanford, USC or any of a half-dozen fine schools in the Boston area, or
frankly any comparable private school anywhere. More to the point,
tuition costs at UC are comparable to, and in cases lower than, peer
public universities. UC students are getting much more from UC than they
are paying for. The question for them is, who is subsidizing their
education? In part, it is the many 18- to 22-year-old workers who did
not have the educational opportunities the UC protestors had in high
school. Memo to protesting UC students: Show a little gratitude by
getting back to class so you can make something of yourselves, and maybe
make a positive difference for someone else down the line.

Brian Tucker