Campuses, BOG Differ On Tuition

Both UNC-Chapel Hill's and N.C. State University's boards of trustees have approved one-year, $400 tuition increase requests that the BOG is scheduled to consider March 6.

But at a meeting last week of the BOG's Budget and Finance Committee, committee member Robert Warwick proposed a $250 cap on campus-initiated tuition increases at both institutions.

Warwick also suggested that the BOG adopt a 10 percent systemwide increase -- instead of a 4.8 percent increase previously discussed by the BOG -- largely to fund enrollment growth and need-based financial aid.

Although Warwick's proposal garnered mixed reviews from board members, administrators at UNC-CH and N.C. State University have said they have no intention of modifying their proposals and bringing $250 tuition increase requests before the BOG.

Warwick's proposal called for all campuses to submit their modified tuition plans to the BOG by March 1.

Despite the possible cap, the N.C. State trustees approved a $400 tuition increase Friday, and UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser said Wednesday that UNC-CH's trustees had no plans to alter a $400 tuition increase request it passed in January.

But Warwick said BOG members would work with individual campuses to determine appropriate tuition levels.

"There's room in this situation for people to have honest differences of opinion," he said. "And we're not saying that (UNC-CH) and (N.C.) State don't need $400. We have the responsibility to match (the universities') need with the ability of the students to pay that tuition."

Warwick said he proposed the cap and the 10 percent increase partly because he does not want students to pay more than they can handle.

"That 10 percent across-the-board increase and the cap was a proposal to get something on the table for the Board of Governors to talk about," he said. "We had to put a cap on the campus-based tuition increases so that they wouldn't be too large."

BOG member Jim Phillips said there is a perpetual tension between campus-initiated and systemwide tuition increases. "I think, to some extent, those things are in conflict," he said. "I think there's a choke point where you can set tuition increases too high. ... We just have to set priorities."

Phillips also said BOG members must act as intermediaries between the 16 UNC-system campuses and the N.C. General Assembly. He added he is not sure exactly how the BOG will act in a situation where its wants and the wants of individual campuses conflict. "We're sort of the middlemen here," he said. "We've been called on to make some decisions."

N.C. State BOT member Richard Vaughn said he thinks the the university's trustees presented a good case for why the university needs a $400 tuition increase.

"With recent budget cuts in Raleigh, which are being passed through to the constituent universities, a tuition increase is needed," he said. "I would assume we've been able to produce satisfactory evidence that a $400 campus- based increase is needed at N.C. State."

But Warwick defended his proposal, saying it was key to maintaining access for students. He said, "We have a mandate to provide these students with access if they're qualified, and that's what we're trying to do."

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