In 1984, DVC announced that they would start charging tuition in the fall.

Full-time students, who took six units or more, paid a flat fee of $50 while part-time students, who took less than six units, paid $5 per unit.

This move not only affected students at DVC, but community college students in the entire state of California.

An Oakland Tribune reporter, Virgil Mibert, was quoted in the student newspaper – called the Enquirer at the time – as saying, “The only other thing that community college students can be assured of is [some form of] tuition in the fall semester.”

While the only thing community college students could be certain  of was some type of  tuition, students today are only certain that the fees will increase.

On Dec. 15, the Calfornia Legislature will decide whether mid-year budget cuts are necessary.

According to a Sept. 8 statement from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, fees will increase to $46 per unit if legislators announce the need of mid-year cuts.

Currently, classes are $36 per unit.  For non-California residents the fee is $231, which consists of the $36 fee plus a $195 out-of-state charge.

Habib Simab, a DVC student during the late 1980s and early 1990s, remembers that the fees were around $10 per unit.

According to the UC Davis website, the tuition alone for the 2011 school year is estimated to be $13,860.

When compared to an estimated $1,080 for DVC’s tuition, community college comes out to be an attractive option.

Students like Lorri Budesa agree that it is still cheaper to go to community college first, but it’s still expensive compared to the days where it was free.

“They keep cutting classes and hiking fees. It isn’t fair,” Budesa said,

Maraccini, 20, is transferring to UC Davis next fall after completing her general education courses at DVC.

She believes that it was cheaper than doing the same courses at a four-year university.

“While $36 per unit is a bit much, I know that I ended up saving more by attending DVC first,” Maraccini said.

According to a Legislative Analyst’s Office report on community college fees for the 2011 – 2012 school year, California could eventually increase the fee to $60 per unit but even then “fees would remain lowest among the country.”

Zakia Nabi took classes at DVC in the late ’80s as well and thought that the $9-$10 per unit was absurd.

Three of her children have also attended DVC, two of whom have transferred to UC Berkeley. All of her children began DVC after the ’90s. The fees per unit varied from $19 to $26 with each child.

Her children, at the time, thought it was costly. Now, it seems tame compared to the $36 per unit fee.

“It will probably go to $46 per unit next semester,” Nabi said.

Students will have to wait until until Dec 15. to figure out when exactly the fee increase will occur.

Nabi’s daughter, Maryam, attended DVC from 2004 to 2006 before transferring to UC Berkeley and thought of the fees $26 per unit at the time as  a small burden.

She, like many other students, noticed it was much cheaper going to DVC first.

Even people going back to school have been surprised at the recent increase of the tuition fees. Cecilia Ortiz, a mother of two, decided to come back to school a couple of years ago.

She was also shocked by the fee hikes since she attended DVC before the introduction of community college tuition in 1984.

Now, she has realized it is no longer 1984.

“Times are changing and so are the prices,” Ortiz said.