Students Plan Opposition to Hike

The group tentatively planned a demonstration at the Jan. 24 UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees meeting to protest the task force's tuition increase proposal. The BOT is expected to vote on the proposal at the meeting.

Student leaders also would like to conduct a forum with members of the UNC-system Board of Governors before the March BOG meeting so students can voice their dissent to a tuition increase.

At Tuesday's meeting, students also voiced concern about the possibility of a five-year plan for increasing tuition starting in fall 2003. "The plan to increase tuition by $400 next year, get a one-year break and increase tuition again for the next five years is insane," said Brad Overcash, vice chairman of student academic affairs in student government.

Most of the two-hour meeting was spent planning the demonstration and forum, but students also discussed the possibility of an alternate tuition proposal.

Student Body President Justin Young has expressed interest in presenting to the BOT a tuition plan separate from that recommended by the Task Force on Tuition, of which Young is a co-chairman. No specifics of the proposal were discussed at the meeting.

Senior Bharath Parthasarathy said University officials want a tuition increase because it is the simplest solution. "Tuition is the University's easiest controllable (revenue) factor," he said.

Overcash said the task force might not have considered an alternative way to raise funds. "(Officials) are saying, 'We need a tuition increase, how should we spend the money?'" he said. "What they should be doing is saying, 'Here's the problem: We need to retain and recruit great faculty, how do we do that?'"

Students at the meeting also discussed possible uses for the additional revenue from a tuition increase. Several students said they think the money should go to increasing faculty salaries. The task force also concluded that the funds from a tuition increase should go to improve faculty salaries.

"If the tuition goes up, I'd rather see (the money) go to professors than anyone else," said junior Fred Hashagen.

Parthasarathy said tuition should be used to increase the salaries of lower-paid faculty members to the level of peer institutions.

"There are some professors here with six figure salaries, and some professors with salaries well below that," he said.

Other students at the meeting warned about the reliance on faculty salary numbers from peer institutions, citing that they might not be as low as the figures indicate.

"When adjusted for the cost of living, tuition needs to go down," said Anup Dashputre, chairman of student services for student government. "It's 1.6 times more expensive to live in Berkeley than Chapel Hill, but professors there only make $12,000 more. It doesn't add up."

The student committee will meet again at 7 p.m. today and Thursday in Suite C of the Union. Members are expected to work out more details about the demonstration and begin preparing their proposal.

The meetings are open to all students.

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