Legislators Share Views About Hike

The BOG approved an 8 percent systemwide tuition increase for in-state students and a 12 percent increase for out-of-state students.

The N.C. General Assembly must give final approval to all tuition increase proposals during its short session, slated to begin May 28.

The board specified that about 80 percent of the almost $40 million generated by the hike would fund enrollment growth. The remaining 20 percent will be used for need-based financial aid.

But General Assembly leaders are considering initiatives that might eliminate the need for future tuition increases to fund enrollment growth.

Sen. President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, sent a letter to the board Tuesday stating that tuition should not be increased to fund enrollment growth.

"We believe that tuition increases should be preserved to fund needs that enhance the campuses, not to fund enrollment growth," they wrote.

Basnight and Black proposed to switch system enrollment growth funding from the state's expansionary budget to its continuation budget.

Items included in the expansionary budget must be approved annually, while those included in the continuation budget are automatically included in the state's budget.

Basnight and Black wrote in their letter that university officials should not have to struggle yearly to secure funds for new students. "We in the Senate and the House believe this is the wrong approach to take in securing the need of higher education," they wrote.

Sen. Walter Dalton, D-Rutherford, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Education/Higher Education, said the proposal to move enrollment funding to the continuation budget reflects the legislature's -- and specifically Basnight's -- commitment to funding higher education in the state and ensuring access for students.

Dalton said that, if passed, the proposal would provide greater security for campuses by automatically funding enrollment increases. "It's a fairly significant change in the way this is looked at in the budgetary process," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said funding enrollment growth is a major priority for legislators.

But Rand said he thinks the large systemwide increase is not an effective way to fund the system's 16 universities because the money would be dispersed among all campuses, harming individual institutions.

UNC-Chapel Hill stands to lose $5.3 million in tuition revenue if the BOG's proposal is approved. UNC-CH also could face additional budget cuts implemented by the legislature because the state is facing a budget shortfall in excess of $1 billion for the 2002-03 fiscal year.

"We are going to have to do less with more," Rand said. "It's a tough time, and we are all going to have to tighten our belts."

He said cuts on the state level will be based on overall institutional budgets and that enrollment growth and financial need will not be taken into consideration. Rand said universities with large budgets and low enrollment increases, like UNC-CH, will be hit especially hard next year if the BOG's proposal passes in its current form.

"It looks like to me that Carolina is taking a double hit," Rand said. "If I were at Carolina, I wouldn't like that much."

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