BOT Action On Tuition Uncertain

The Task Force on Tuition -- a committee made up of UNC-CH students, faculty and administrators -- made a recommendation Tuesday for a one-year, $400 tuition increase. The BOT plans to act on the recommendation Jan. 24.

But members said the BOT can choose to modify the size and stipulations of an increase proposal -- or even eliminate the proposal entirely -- before casting a vote on a recommendation.

A proposal would then have to go before the UNC-system Board of Governors for approval in March before it could be implemented.

"The board really has three options," said BOT Chairman Tim Burnett. "It can vote for no tuition increase at all, it can accept the recommended proposal, or it can ask the committee for more information on their research."

The BOT last voted on a tuition proposal in October 1999, when it revised a recommendation from the Chancellor's Committee on Faculty Salaries and Benefits that would have increased tuition by $375 or $500 per year -- depending on whether a student was in-state or out-of-state -- over a four-year period.

The BOT ended up voting in favor of a $300 per year increase for all students during a five-year period.

Anne Cates, who served as BOT chairwoman during the 1999 vote, said the board considered long-term implications when it revised the proposal recommended two years ago. "We were trying to preserve the future value of (a UNC-CH) diploma," she said. "We made what we thought would be the most fair decision for the entire University community."

At Tuesday's task force meeting, members of the committee suggested the possibility that the BOT might reduce the proposal as it has done before.

But Provost Robert Shelton, who is co-chairman of the task force, said the 1999 tuition increase is not a fair precedent upon which to predict the BOT's response. "I don't think you should extrapolate from past years," Shelton said.

Burnett said that because the 1999 proposal was a multiyear increase, it will be considered differently than the one-year increase the board will evaluate next week. "I have no reason to expect that the BOT will cut the proposal this time," he said. "I think the reason it was reduced last time was that four- and five-year increases sounded like a lot when we didn't know if there would be future systemwide increases. But for this one-year plan, I don't know what the board will do."

The 1999 tuition proposal was later reduced by the BOG to $300 a year for two years.

Student Body President Justin Young, the task force's other co-chairman, said the BOT might revise the proposal to make it more appealing to the BOG.

"One different perspective the BOT has is the willingness of the BOG to accept a proposal," Young said. "They might want to look at the reasons why the BOG reduced it the last time."

Burnett also said the BOT might revise the recommendation because of the effect a tuition increase could have on other UNC-system schools. "We are aware that there our other campuses in the system looking at increasing tuition that will be impacted by what happens in Chapel Hill," he said. "We are not on an island or operating in a vacuum."

But Burnett said he cannot predict how the board will act at the Jan. 24 meeting. "No one will really have any idea until next Thursday."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.