Not to bring tuition down, of course, not that they could: Duke, as a private university, has the right to operate like any other part of the free market. If the price tag isn't a deterrent -- and Duke reports ever-spiraling numbers of applications, so it clearly is not -- then the university is free to charge what it will.
The $50,000 threshold isn't noteworthy for its shock value; Duke admissions officials aver that most students don't pay the university's sticker price. It's important because it's the latest in a series of signals that Duke intends to grow through the recession.
And perhaps the tuition bump is the responsible choice. As the Ivy League has seen, a university that depends lives off of interest from its endowment is at the mercy of the financial markets. Duke and its endowment are young enough to still rely on tuition to help fund the university's strides in research, faculty and student experience.
It's a strategy that the General Assembly needs to adopt. The UNC governors are rightly concerned that the legislature might help itself to new funds that the UNC system is raising through modest tuition increases next year. We encourage them to keep fighting.
That money ought to be reinvested in higher education. Duke is far from the only university that sees the recession as an opportunity to gain ground in academia's constant competition for the brightest students, the best academic reputation, the most grant funding.
The UNC system has earned a national reputation for excellence because taxpayers paid dearly for it, including a $3.1 billion bond act in 2000. It was a brave investment, signaling that North Carolinians will stand by our public universities.
It has paid off in a national reputation for excellence.
We have spent too much time, money and effort to risk backsliding into the ranks of "good enough" regional universities.
It is counterproductive and irresponsible for the General Assembly to consider appropriating tuition money for any use beyond the universities' gates.
