BOG Next To Tackle Tuition

But BOG members said the state's economy will be only one factor among many in what is expected to be a wide-ranging discussion on tuition the board will engage in during its next two meetings.

BOG Chairman Ben Ruffin said that when considering campuses' tuition requests the board also will consider each campus's history of tuition increases, total cost in both tuition and fees, the amount of financial aid that will be allocated from each tuition increase and how the money will be spent.

The BOG will begin discussion of the campus-initiated tuition requests and also begin re-examination of its own tuition policy at its February meeting.

Both student leaders and BOG members have criticized the board for not following its own policy, which the board adopted in 1998 and the N.C. General Assembly modified last summer.

The policy calls for the BOG to only grant campus-initiated tuition requests in "extraordinary" circumstances.

But in the last two years the BOG has approved tuition increase requests at 11 UNC-system schools, including UNC-CH.

The BOG will vote on all campus-initiated tuition increase requests March 6.

The majority of schools in the UNC system either have approved or are considering tuition increases of varying degrees.

In March, the board will not only consider campus-initiated tuition increase requests but also a 4.8 percent systemwide tuition increase and various student fee increases from across the UNC system.

The discussion of tuition is expected to convene as N.C. legislators begin to get clearer projections of the state's fiscal picture.

Those projections could show a budget deficit as high as $900 million.

To fill that fiscal hole, legislators might have to make budget cuts to various state agencies, including the UNC system.

But discussion of tuition could also be held in the context of the state's fiscal matters.

"What we're talking about is money, so there is no question that the (financial) health of the state and the university will be a factor," Ruffin said.

"We need to find out from the General Assembly what kind of support they will be able to give us."

Already several BOG members have expressed concern about whether the General Assembly will grant the board members' top legislative priority for the upcoming session -- $70 million for funding enrollment growth. The state legislature will reconvene this spring after the longest session in history.

"It's going to be hard to get that money from the General Assembly," BOG member Jim Phillips said.

But BOG member Priscilla Taylor said the board should not use the state's economic problems as a reason to increase tuition.

Taylor said the board has a constitutional responsibility to keep tuition low, especially in tough economic times.

"We want to be very, very careful when we raise tuition," Taylor said. "The recession hadn't really hit the people of North Carolina last year.

"It's hitting them now."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.