A lot has changed from the 70’s. From the Bee Gees, The Flock of Seagulls, and to Nirvana, American culture has developed in a kaleidoscope of variety. A huge green movement sparked in the ‘70s, and causing more people to become more environmentally friendly, carrying on through the ‘80s and ‘90s and really paralleling our focus today with green cars, buildings, and other appliances.

Ronald Reagan was Governor of California from ‘70 to ‘74, focusing on issues such as cutting funding for the University of California, the hot topic of the era, and welfare reform, according to the National Governors’ Association. Right after Reagan, our current governor, Edmund G. Brown Jr., or Jerry Brown, held office into ‘82. Beginning office in ‘98,  Gray Davis made historical cuts in funding to community colleges’, topping at nearly $215 million.

These cuts devastated numerous colleges, “the 2.9 million students who depend on us are going to suffer even more now” states the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Over the decades, college students, whether University of California, state or community colleges, have had to face challenges from many angles.

Former California Senator Albert Rodda, coincidentally a former student of Sacramento City College, wrote the paper titled “Tuition: Considerations of Interest to Democratic Legislators” on imposing tuition for the University of California.

“The community colleges, under the law, must accept all students with a high school diploma and all who are 18 years of age or over who can benefit from an education. This is the open-door policy and, of course, the law imposes the non-tuition principle on the community colleges” exhorted Rodda in 1970. Likewise, students at universities in the ‘70s were conducting protests to the induction of tuition in the UC system, and community college was, free. In 1998, according to the Los Angeles Times, resident and tuition fees were $2,304, nonresident was $9,684, and room and board was $5,020. In 2011, UC Davis states that just its tuition fees are $12,796, a far cry from the 70’s.

Costs have definitely become tougher and tougher on the student of today. According to a graph from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gas was approximately 60 cents per gallon in ‘79, in ‘91 approximately $1.20, and the graph ends in 2009 with above 350 cents.