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Tuition may not be raised next year, but the subject already has been.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Robert Shelton did so before University
trustees at their Nov. 15 meeting. He was directed to form a group to look at
the tuition question and bring back a recommendation about a possible increase
so that trustees can consider it when they meet again in January.
The trustees must make their recommendation to the UNC Board of Governors,
which in turn must make its own recommendations to the N.C. General Assembly by
March.
Trustee Chair Tim Burnett said passion and opinion is always generated in vast
abundance whenever tuition increases are considered. What will make it even
more difficult this time around, Burnett said, is that the state legislature
has given universities greater flexibility to decide if and when to implement
tuition increases -- and by how much.
"We got what we asked for," Burnett said. "Now we have to deal with it."
And for the time being, that responsibility falls on Shelton and the study
committee he will lead over the next two months.
"I don't envy you the job," Burnett told Shelton. And, he said, "I wish you
luck."
Shelton said that the subject's difficulty is all the more reason why tuition
should be reviewed systematically each year. It is critical that everyone, both
the people who make the decision and the students who would be affected by it,
should have a common data set to go on, Shelton said.
Shelton said the approach is critical as well.
Instead of raising money through tuition increases and deciding what to do with
it, Shelton said, it would make more sense to study what the needs are,
determine how much money would be needed to meet them and then calculate a
tuition increase to meet those needs.
Shelton said tuition increases must be used to maintain the quality of the
undergraduate experience, as measured by such things as teacher-student ratios
that are higher here than at peer institutions.
But the key factor in maintaining Carolina's tradition of excellence with
undergraduate education is to maintain the high-quality faculty.
No matter how it is broached, the question of raising tuition always seems to
arouse strong emotion and complaints from various quarters affected.
To that end, raising faculty salaries was a major goal behind the two
consecutive $300 tuition increases at Carolina over the past two years that
students paid in addition to the smaller increases instituted across the UNC
system.
Statistics collected from Carolina students reveal that a vast majority of them
come from families with household incomes considerably higher than that of most
families in North Carolina and the country.
Even with rising tuition rates at Carolina over the past decade, tuition and
fees remain below 4 percent of median family income for Carolina families. In
contrast, fees and tuition for attendees of peer public institutions across the
country amount to close to 7 percent of median family income.
But Trustee Paul Fulton Jr. made it clear he was uninterested in how Carolina
compared with other universities. Carolina is not like other universities
because of its tradition of upholding accessibility as one of its "fundamental
values."
Fulton's strong protest revealed how difficult it will be to marshal an
argument for higher tuition based on and bolstered by facts. It will be
difficult because the tradition Fulton alluded to is predicated on the state
constitution that calls for tuition at Carolina to remain as close to free as
practicable.
A lot has changed since the state constitution was written, of course. Carolina
began as the first public university in the country; today, it strives to be
the best of them. And it is now part of a broader system of higher education
that includes the 16-member UNC system, and that system is joined by nearly 60
community colleges.
The barrier keeping students out of Carolina is not so much money as it is the
limited availability of slots, and that has allowed Carolina to become
increasingly selective in the students it accepts.
Statistics show that it is getting harder to get into Carolina, but not so much
because of rising tuition as rising standards.
Among this year's freshman class of 3,687 students, for instance, 336 were
either valedictorians or salutatorians of their graduating classes, and 36
percent of freshmen were among the top 10 students in their high school
class.
Tuition for in-state undergraduate students is by no means close to being free
at Carolina, but it remains a bargain by any measure, particularly when tuition
is compared with public peer universities.
About 35 percent of the consecutive $300 tuition increases that were
implemented over the past two years went to pay for student aid. Last year, the
increase generated $2.43 million for student aid, and $2.48 million was
generated this year.
The remaining 65 percent went for faculty salaries and benefits. Last year's
increase generated $4.5 million. This year's increase generated $4.6 million.
Justin Young, the student body president who serves as a trustee as well, said
he was convinced there had to be a better, more efficient way to raise tuition.
As an out-of-state student, Young is already paying roughly the same amount
that out-of-state students pay at peer universities.
Sue Estroff, chair of the faculty, appeared before the trustees to appeal to
them to "unlink" the question of pay raises for faculty with the possibility of
tuition hikes for faculty.
"To put it in terms of taking it from their pockets and putting it in ours
seems unseemly," she said.
Later in the meeting, Trustee Stick Williams cautioned faculty members to be
careful what they ask for. Faculty members, on the one hand, can't complain
about where the money comes from and, on the other, expect to get the
competitive salaries they want and deserve.
The money has got to come from somewhere, and because of the faltering economy,
it's not likely to come from state appropriations, Williams suggested.
Chancellor James Moeser said faculty members, on average, received about a 3.5
percent pay increase when revenues generated by the $300 tuition were coupled
with the $625 state pay increase that all University employees received.
The University still lost ground in raising faculty pay up to a competitive
level, Moeser said, but it lost less ground because those additional revenues
were available.
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