Recent discussion of a tuition increase at UNC-W follows Chancellor James Leutze's vocal support for a substantial tuition increase at a campus BOT meeting in November.
Leutze said administrators need to increase tuition at UNC-W unless the UNC-system Board of Governors follows through with a plan to significantly raise tuition across the board. The BOG plans to vote on an inflationary 4.8 percent systemwide tuition increase in the spring.
UNC-W is among the first universities to take advantage of the BOG's new tuition policy, which the N.C. General Assembly changed in September to allow individual campuses to request tuition increases without demonstrating emergency need.
Mark Lanier, special assistant to the chancellor at UNC-W, said the possibility of a tuition increase is most immediately related to the dwindling amount of state-appropriated funds the campus receives.
The portion of the campus' $142 million budget covered by state funds has dropped to 39.6 percent, down from 58.4 percent in 1980, according to a presentation UNC-W administrators made to the BOT in November. "The state has not kept up with the needs of state universities," Lanier said. "Schools are unable to offer the services and programs students expect and demand."
Lanier said UNC-W can no longer rely on state appropriations to fund university programs. He added that the tuition increase would be used to supplement a variety of campus programs, including safety, maintenance and faculty compensation programs. But Lanier refused to name a targeted dollar amount for the tuition increase before the proposal goes before the BOT.
Mimi Cunningham, assistant vice chancellor for university relations at UNC-W, said she expects a sizeable portion of the tuition increase to supplement faculty salaries. She said the university is not receiving adequate funds from the state to financially support the faculty and administrators.
"Tuition increases would be one way to make a difference in ensuring the faculty is financially secure," Cunningham said.
Lanier said a portion of the increase would likely be earmarked for faculty compensation but that it would likely be less than 10 percent of the increase.