A new campus policy that would require students to dole out 20 percent or more of their tuition and fees ahead of classes will disadvantage a significant portion of the student body — particularly those who do not have thousands of dollars at their disposal.

The consequences for the new policy, which was announced last week in a campuswide email, are brutal. If a student fails to pay by the Aug. 19 deadline, their class enrollment will be canceled and their spots given to other students.

The announcement was made quietly. Unlike other important announcements, it was not clear from the first few written lines that this announcement could mean massive consequences for those who failed to read the rest of the email.

Implementing such a drastic change in policy a mere month before the new deadline gives students and parents just a few weeks to complete any necessary financial aid papers, file for emergency loans or scrape together the approximately $1,350 required of in-state students or $4,000 required of out-of-state students without financial aid. Out-of-state students cannot cover this whole cost with emergency loans, thus many will be stretched to pull together their payment.

Not only is a vast portion of the student population probably still unaware of this change, but by the time they do become aware of it, it may be too late. The policy will disproportionately affect those who rely on outside loan sources or third-party funding and are unable to access the necessary funds until their paperwork has been through weeks of processing.

For a public school that prides itself on promoting access and affordability, this new policy seems out of place and harmful to the very students the UC system hopes to serve.

For many students, the process is complicated even further by circumstances beyond their control, such as language barriers or medical conditions that require exponentially more financial aid filing.

If a student misses the payment deadline and their enrollment is canceled, they will then be allowed starting on Aug. 24 to re-enroll in classes and their payment will be due the next day.

The wave of students that rush to the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office at the beginning of every semester will undoubtedly be multiplied many times over, causing a backlog in loan processing and overwhelming an already understaffed department.

The campus says the new policy will help distribute available seats in classes fairly, but it is not helpful to combat overcrowding in classrooms with a last-minute policy that unfairly puts stress on students. Waitlists have been annoying at times, but this “solution” is no solution at all. What is this, then, besides a bureaucratic version of a bully’s shakedown for the campus’s already exorbitant fees?

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Senior Editorial Board as written by the opinion editor.