Grad students' insurance, computer network added
to `95-97 budget request
The UNC system Board of Governors will ask the General Assembly this year for funding to provide health insurance for graduate teaching and research assistants and to complete fiber optic networks on the 16 campuses.
These requests are part of a short list of supplemental needs that the board is adding to its the 1995-97 Budget Request, which is already before the legislature.
The board has identified $14.2 million for current operations and $53.8 million to complete fiber optic networks and building wiring for the 16 campuses.
It proposes that $4.2 million earmarked for enrollment growth be reallocated to other high-priority needs within the system. Enrollment has not been as high as anticipated when the 1995-97 request was prepared in 1994, it explained.
These requests will be forwarded to the governor and the General Assembly for consideration during the upcoming short session. The legislature in odd years adopts a two-year budget for the state, including the UNC system. In even years, it meets to adjust the budget as dictated by state's revenue picture.
The board's top legislative priority continues to be significant salary increases for EPA employees. The 1995-97 Budget Request calls for a 5 percent increase for all EPA employees and an additional 2 percent for faculty and others with direct student contact, such as librarians.
Chairman Sam Neill at a budget session last month said the board also strongly supported SPA salary increases. The board only is authorized to recommend EPA salary funding.
The board also requests that the General Assembly reduce the required reversion rate and complete the scheduled phase-out of the overhead receipts offset.
Health insurance for grad assistants
The majority of the supplemental request, $8.5 million, would fund health insurance for graduate teaching and research assistants.
"This program would enhance the University's ability to recruit and employ the best graduate students," said Marshall A. Rauch, chair of the board's Committee on Budget and Finance.
The request document noted the UNC system was at a competitive disadvantage because it did not provide health insurance for its 6,500 graduate students who work as teaching or research assistants. The document outlined three cost options to provide health coverage:
*$11.3 million to enroll in the State Health Plan ($1,736/student).
*$8.5 million to provide a major medical package ($1,300/student).
*$4.6 million to pay for student health fees and supplemental insurance ($700/student).
Networking and wiring
The board made only one supplemental capital improvement request: $53.8 million to complete the installation of fiber optic networks and wire all academic campus facilities.
"This is a large request but the funds are needed to equip our campuses with the tools that students need to compete successfully in today's marketplace," Rauch said.
Other new requests
Additional funding also was requested in the following areas:
*$150,000 for Chapel Hill and N.C. State to assure English-language proficiency for graduate teaching assistants.
*$200,000 for a systemwide student-satisfaction measures survey of enrolled students as part of the board's accountability plan.
*$2.5 million to expand off-campus, distance-learning and summer school opportunities.
*$3 million for additional cooperative programs in support of public schools, including establishing in the Institute of Government a program for school board members and strengthening the technology curriculum in the Principals' Executive Program.
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