<p>I don’t know. That is always true in the most general sense. The university could shut down various programs and services and that might free up enough money to prevent fee hikes. However, then we’d have students protesting about the loss of these programs and services instead of fee hikes.</p>
<p>As for the construction, I’m not sure it’s as simple as that. This is of course just speculation, but in many cases this type of construction is made possible by outside funding, by donations from either private sources or from the federal government. These kinds of donations often have stipulations attached to them. If it were as simple as free money for the university to use as it sees fit, then perhaps it could be diverted away from construction projects. However, if the federal government gave money to the university to construct new facilities for the science department because this department is contracted to do research by the department of defense, then this money can hardly be used to spare the students a fee hike.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the money dedicated to these construction projects was likely set aside quite a while ago, before the university was in a position where it had to consider raising fees. Even if the money could be used at the university’s discretion, there is likely an extensive approval process involved that makes it difficult to redistribute money that is already committed to a project of that magnitude. This is a characteristic of Congress and it shouldn’t be surprising that it extends to smaller bureaucracies, like the UC system.</p>