For the first time in nearly a decade, college students in California will receive a gift beginning in the fall: lowered fees.

The College Affordability Act (Assembly Bill 1318), which was passed by the Assembly last spring, will go into effect in the Fall 1998 semester and will lower fees in the University of California and California State University systems by as much as 5 percent.

Lt. Gov. Gray Davis said the bill, which was authored by Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny (D-National City), will impact not only college students, but will have long-range effects on the entire state.

“The College Affordability Act recognizes that California’s future economic success will rely on a well-educated work force,” Davis said in a news release, “and that allowing costs to prevent even some Californians from maximizing their potential through higher education will ultimately prove detrimental to all Californians.”

Fees in the UC system will drop $190 per year, and fees at California State schools will drop $79. Those are the largest fee reductions in state history.

Full-time tuition at San Diego State University will be $872 next fall.

Aside from lowering fees, the bill will also freeze them in 1999.

The decreases come after tuitions rose more than 100 percent at all levels in the first half of the 1990s, including a 290-percent hike in the California Community College system. Community college students will see their fees drop from $13 to $12 next fall.

“The biggest reason it took so long for fees to go down is because the economy is doing well and (the state) could afford it,” Kevin McCarty, a spokesman for Ducheny, said.

The last time students saw their fees decrease was in 1984, but at the same time community colleges began charging students for the first time ever.

Proponents of the College Affordability Act say high fees deny low-income students the opportunity to benefit from a college education.

According to a study commissioned by the California Education Roundtable, a combination of high costs and an increasing population would deny one of every three potential students a college education by the year 2025.

The study also said increased fees were partly to blame for a drop in enrollment in California’s public colleges in the first half of the 1990s, at which time enrollment dropped by nearly 58,000 students.

But those numbers could reverse themselves in the wake of the new law, according to McCarty.

“I think the perception that fees are going down will have a huge impact on increasing enrollments,” he said. “Add to that the current population increase, and we expect to see enrollments go up.”

There is no certainty as to what will happen to fees after the 1999 freeze. But plans are already in the works for a long-term solution.

“There are no immediate plans to lower fees again, but there are discussions on a long-term fee plan,” McCarty said.

Besides lowering costs for students, AB 1318 also provides California’s public colleges and universities with $41.9 million from the state’s General Fund.