BOG's 5-Year Tuition Plan Could Begin a Year Earlier

The BOG's Budget and Finance Committee made several changes to its plan for dealing with campus-initiated tuition requests in the long and short term.

At its meeting, the committee voted to modify the BOG's earlier proposal that all 16 UNC-system campuses construct five-year plans for tuition and fees, starting with the 2003-04 academic year.

Instead, the committee approved a motion that calls for the five-year plans to start in 2002-03. Because all 16 UNC-system schools have made or will soon make decisions about the 2002-03 year, the motion essentially forces all schools to draw up four-year plans starting with the 2003-04 school year.

While there was some brief discussion about the change, committee members agreed that it was best to move up the time frame for the tuition plans.

"I would prefer that at this point, since this is the first time that campuses are (constructing long-term plans), that it be for as short of time as possible," said committee member Jim Phillips.

He added that as campuses gain experience with constructing long-term tuition proposals, plans could be made for longer periods of time.

The motion regarding the five-year plans is expected to be voted on by the full BOG today. The committee also decided to require that each campus's five-year plan be submitted to the BOG by next fall so the committee can examine them at the BOG's October meeting.

The committee also discussed adding at least one more meeting between now and March 6 -- when the BOG is expected to vote on all campus-initiated tuition increase requests for the 2002-03 year -- to give the board more time to consider the issue.

About a dozen UNC-system schools are expected to bring requests before the BOG. In March, the board also is expected to vote on an inflationary, systemwide 4.8 percent tuition increase and perhaps make changes to its tuition policy.

The committee's discussion of tuition came just minutes after the board held a workshop to examine both the UNC system's and the state's financial situations and their relationship to tuition.

The workshop included a presentation from Dan Gerlach, Gov. Mike Easley's senior policy adviser for fiscal affairs, who warned board members that it is unlikely that the state government would be able to increase funding to the UNC system during the state's economic crisis.

Easley announced Tuesday that state revenue would be $900 million less than expected for the 2001-02 fiscal year and requested that the UNC system revert $21 million in funding to help make up for the shortfall. The request comes on top of $40 million in budget reversions that the UNC system made in November.

But Gerlach said that despite the state's economic problems, Easley is committed to improving the quality of education in the state. He said, "The only people who are doing OK during this recession are people with college degrees."

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