Months after registration, students who had already paid the $11 tuition fee are now being billed for the $7 increase per unit.

The increase in fees due to budget cuts proposed by former Gov. Gray Davis were decided by the state legislature in August. EC was informed in September of the increase.

However, letters were not sent out until the last week of October. Anne Garten, director of public relations and marketing said.

“I received the letter and I was extremely upset,” Nancy Bonilla, 19, undecided major, said.

“I’m trying to make it when I don’t have a job and my parents are helping me out. It’s really upsetting; I’m extremely devastated,” she said.

In order to register for the spring semester and receive a grade, students will have to pay their fees. If students don’t pay, they will not have access to their transcripts, Patricia Fees, business manager said.

James Chang, 21, physical education major, said that he still hasn’t paid what he’s owed since the beginning of the semester.

“Before I would pay it off right away, it wasn’t too bad at eleven dollars. But now because of the eighteen dollars per unit, I still haven’t paid it off because it’s too expensive,” Chang said.

Chang said that he is feeling the pressure of working full time and keeping atop of homework handed out during class.

“I’m working a lot to pay the bills and my grades are really suffering right now because of it. I’m about to drop two classes,” Chang said.

“We didn’t hear the exact figure until the first week of September. As soon as the increase went into place by the legislature, we implemented that change into our system,” Fees said.

Because of the indecisiveness of Davis and the legislature on discussing whether a $404 or $86 million cut would occur, the actual increase was delayed until after the semester started, the Daily Breeze stated..

Bonilla said that the government should cut funding to things that aren’t necessary instead of cutting education.

“They always talk about people not being educated; so they should invest more money in school,” Bonilla said.

EC tried to warn students about the increase as best it could, Fees said.

There were banners placed all over school and on Redondo Beach Blvd. about doubling the fees .

“As soon as we knew that there was a possibility (of an increase) we put in the schedule ‘subject to change,’ ” Fees said.

“Different notices were all over campus; the Union did some articles as well” she said.

EC attempted to ease the burden by waiting until the semester was “underway” before billing the students Fees said.

By doing this it allowed the students time to prepare.

Fees doesn’t want to see students finding out too late that they can’t register because of unpaid fees.

Students who have financial problems can even pay it off in increments.

“My suggestion is to get it paid right away,” Fees said.