Two years later, history could repeat itself.
In November 1998, the BOG approved a policy allowing individual campuses to request a tuition increase if an "exceptional situation" arose.
Less than a year later, UNC-CH became the first UNC campus to take advantage of the policy after the Chancellor's Committee on Faculty Salary and Benefits determined that a tuition increase was necessary to raise faculty salaries, which had fallen behind those of peer institutions.
After the UNC-CH Board of Trustees approved a five-year plan to increase tuition by $1,500, several other UNC-system schools also petitioned the BOG for tuition increases.
By last spring, the BOG had approved tuition increases at 11 of the 16 UNC-system universities, prompting some BOG members to argue the board was not following its own policy on tuition.
This fall -- after negotiations between UNC-system administrators and members of the N.C. General Assembly -- lawmakers passed a state budget that included a provision calling for changes in the BOG's tuition policy.
The provision states that individual campuses can request a tuition increase "without regard to whether an emergency situation exists." The BOG approved the policy change at its October meeting.
UNC-CH could once again be the first to take advantage of the new policy. The UNC-CH BOT voted Friday to create a committee to examine whether there is a need for a campus-based tuition increase.
No other UNC-system school has begun formal discussions of a campus-initiated tuition increase. "Campus-based initiatives can be built to support the needs of an individual campus," said UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser said at the BOT meeting Thursday.
