Undergrads' 5.2% hike now goes to Board of Governors

By Gregory Childress

gchildress@heraldsun; 918-1046

Chapel Hill -- The UNC Board of Trustees approved a 5.2 percent tuition increase Thursday that will cost in-state undergraduate students an additional $200 and out-of-state undergrads an extra $1,127 each year.

While the $200 collected from in-state students is earmarked for state coffers, the nearly $4 million generated by an out-of-state tuition increase would fund a number of university priorities.

For example, half the money from the out-of-state tuition increase would be used for need-based student aid of which university officials say there is a growing need. The rest would be spent on improving course offerings and retaining faculty.

The proposal also calls for a 3.7 percent tuition increase for graduate students.

Officials say the $4 million will challenge the university to meet all of the demands it has. They hope, as do officials at universities across the UNC system, that state legislators have a change of heart and allow the schools to keep the money generated by the proposed $200 in state tuition increase.

If that were to happen, UNC would have another $5.3 million to fund its priorities.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles has talked to lawmakers about allowing the schools to keep the money to pay for pressing needs such as student aid, programs to improve graduation and retention rates at some schools and recruitment and retention of top faculty.

While trustees were unanimous in their approval of the tuition increase, the process has not been without controversy.

Some students complained the process was not open enough and out-of-state students complained that the 5.2 percent increase will create a hardship for them in these tough economic times.

Ryan Morgan, a member of UNC's Out-of-State Student Association and a senior from Alabama, told trustees that some out-of-state students are being forced to withdraw after completing more than half of the requirement toward their degree because of increasing out-of-state tuition.

Afterward, Morgan said the tuition increase proposed was better than the alternative -- a 6.5 percent increase officials were considering as a second option.

"I really wish it would have been lower, but you have to be pragmatic," Morgan said.

Another group of students led by Fayetteville senior Rakhee Devasthali was critical of the process, complaining that student voices were not heard. Devasthali demanded that trustees find another option and look for additional budget cuts that would allow the university to ask for a smaller tuition increase.

"There are plenty of other options," Devasthali said.

Even with tuition increase for state and out-of-state students, Bruce Carney, UNC's interim provost, said UNC remains a great bargain for out-of-state students when compared to its public university peers.

Average undergraduate tuition and fees for UNC's top ten peers for the 2009-10 academic years was $28,173 compared to $23,513 for UNC. The University of Michigan topped the list at $34,937. Only the University of Wisconsin had lower tuition and fees -- $23,063 -- than UNC.

Trustee John Ellison reiterated concerns he expressed Thursday during an audit and finance committee.

Ellison said he worried that UNC would eventually do harm to its reputation if it does not begin to increase tuition to adequate levels to compete with its peers for top faculty. He said if the university loses highly talented faculty, the loss of top-tier students would soon follow.

"I'm really concerned about what we're doing with tuition," Ellison said.

He said while UNC is better than 80 percent of the nation's public universities, it pays its faculty like schools rated in the middle of the pack.

"If we continue down that path ... it's going to be difficult to keep quality faculty," Ellison said.

The tuition proposal will now be sent to the UNC Board of Governors for its approval, which could come early next year.