UNC System lifts salary spending cap, but restrictions remain at some campuses
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- UNC System lifts cap on salary spending enacted amid budget uncertainty in June.
- Some universities retain administrative hiring limits tied to cost-performance ratios.
- Eight campuses and one affiliate exempted after showing aligned growth metrics.
Two months after it was enacted, the UNC System has lifted the cap it placed on public universities’ spending on salaries, but some campuses are still subject to limits on hiring new administrators.
On June 12, UNC System President Peter Hans implemented a “personnel cap” that required campuses to keep their total administrative employee headcounts and total, permanent salary spending at their April levels.
In his memo informing chancellors of the restrictions, Hans said changes to university funding at both the federal and state levels create a need for the caps. He noted that a state budget has not yet been approved by the General Assembly, but both chambers’ versions of the two-year spending plan included “meaningful reductions” in funding for the system.
Now, the limit on salary spending is no longer in place. That’s according to a Sept. 12 memo from UNC System Chief Operating Officer Michael Vollmer, obtained by The News & Observer. Hans lifted the cap on Sept. 11, according to the memo.
Additionally, per the memo, select campuses are no longer subject to limits on administrative hires. The restriction was lifted for those schools because they “have not shown relative growth in administrative salary spending that exceeds growth in credit hour production over the past six years” — referencing a metric Hans said campuses would be measured on when he announced in April that he would direct “a reduction in administrative costs” across the system.
The campuses where the limits are no longer in place are: East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, NC A&T State University, NC Central University, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke and Western Carolina University. The North Carolina Arboretum, which is an affiliated entity of the university system, is also no longer subject to the limit.
Caps remain at some schools
The limit on administrators remains, however, at nine campuses: Appalachian State University, Fayetteville State University, NC State University, UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte, UNC-Chapel Hill, the UNC School of the Arts, UNC Wilmington and Winston-Salem State University.
The campuses “will remain under the administrative headcount cap until the amount of administrative salary spending returns to a level more in-line with credit hour production,” Vollmer’s memo stated. System staff will review the schools’ progress toward that benchmark quarterly, starting in October, per the memo.
“Early savings since June suggest several schools may qualify for cap removal in October, if current trends continue,” the memo read.
Speaking to The N&O after a Board of Governors meeting Thursday, Hans reiterated that the measures are not freezes.
“We’re trying to give the campuses the management flexibility to determine their needs, priorities on their own,” Hans said, “and a number of campuses have already demonstrated their commitment to that and are realizing savings.”
Hans said at a Wednesday meeting that, collectively, campuses saved more than $5 million in June and July with the limits in place. And the system office reduced its own budget by $5 million to “to show that I eat my own cooking,” he said.
Hans also commended chancellors who have introduced plans to cut spending on their campuses, including UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts, who in July announced the university would cut $70 million from its budget.
At a Tuesday meeting where leaders gave an update about those plans, UNC-Chapel Hill Chief Financial Officer Nate Knuffman said the lifted salary cap was “good news” but noted there “continues to be a lot of focus” on administrative positions at the university.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "UNC System lifts salary spending cap, but restrictions remain at some campuses."
