The Daily Tar Heel
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Friday, March 29, 2024 Newsletters Latest print issue

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The Daily Tar Heel

TO THE EDITOR:

Earlier this month, Bruce Carney, Chancellor Thorp and the Board of Trustees completely ignored student-generated tuition proposals. When students protested at official meetings, administrators turned a deaf ear.

These mostly white, male and wealthy administrators callously rejected students’ pleas for compassion and imposed an egregious 15.6 percent hike. Bruce Carney drafted the proposal, with Holden Thorp’s support, and the Trustees approved it. Students actively engaged in the process by every means the system would allow. However, none of these means provided students, especially low-income ones, a legitimate chance to reduce or eliminate hikes.

In the end, trustees unilaterally changed the face of public education in North Carolina forever, limiting access to low-income students, making UNC whiter and richer, and continuing down the path of privatization. A system in which elites balance the budget on the backs of students while they enjoy six to seven figure salaries is outrageous. A system in which a company receives $6.5 million per year to manage a $2.2 billion endowment is disgraceful.

Students clearly cannot advocate within this broken system. Only turning it on its head will make a difference. Students need not only oppose tuition hikes, but also radically remake the irrational process that allows for such hikes in the first place. Rise up and demand an end to the unjust system that charges you unconstitutional tuition rates. A revolution is long overdue.

Sean Langberg
Sophomore
Global Studies

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