N.C. State BOT Gives Nod to $400 Tuition Increase

Funding from the tuition increase will go toward faculty salary increases, hiring of additional instructors and need-based financial aid.

N.C. State's tuition increase request, along with similar requests from 12 other UNC-system schools, will now head to the UNC-system Board of Governors for approval. UNC-Chapel Hill was the first system school to approve a one-year, $400 tuition increase proposal when its BOT passed the request Jan. 24.

The BOG is expected to vote on all tuition increases at its March 6 meeting.

During the brief discussion on the tuition increase Friday, N.C. State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said the BOG might implement a 10 percent systemwide increase and place a $250 cap on campus-initiated increases at several UNC-system schools -- including N.C. State and UNC-CH.

"If that alternative were adopted by the Board of Governors, that would supercede your action today," Fox said. "The Board of Governors, as well as the (N.C.) General Assembly, have the wherewithal to set tuition.

"We could simply react to whatever action they take."

But Fox said she and the board did not heed the BOG's request that research and doctoral institutions develop $250 tuition increase proposals because N.C. State needs at least a $400 increase to remain competitive with peer institutions.

UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser also has said he has no intention of revising the $400 tuition increase proposal passed by the BOT.

Fox added that the BOG should review the proposals, keeping in mind that administrators at the individual campuses know the needs of their universities better than anyone else.

"We think it is necessary for campuses to have management freedom," she said.

Fox said student input, including two open forums, was helpful to N.C. State administrators during the process of devising a campus-initiated tuition increase proposal. "I am very grateful to the students for keeping us on a straight path and for keeping us aware, as we obviously are, of the need to keep the doors wide open to this great university," she said.

But after the vote in favor of the $400 increase, N.C. State Student Body President Darryl Willie said the tuition-setting process must be altered. Willie was the only BOT member to vote against the tuition increase. "We had great dialogue about tuition, not only at this school, but across the state," he said. "We have to work together on the next level to make sure this doesn't continue to happen."

Fox said N.C. State administrators intend to examine the tuition increase process and the factors that make campus-initiated increases necessary. "Our pledge is to put together a task force that will look at tuition long term."

But Andrew Payne, UNC Association of Student Governments president and an N.C. State student, said he does not expect the BOG to approve the $400 increase. "I think (UNC-CH) and (N.C.) State will be very lucky if they get any campus-initiated tuition increase at all."

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