Group Meets To Talk Tuition

Committee members met for the first time Monday to discuss their general approach to the endeavor and solidify plans for the rest of the semester.

Provost Robert Shelton said the group studied essential background information and statistics that will eventually be applied to crafting a long-term tuition plan for the University.

"It was a beginning, and we had good representation I thought," said Shelton, head of the committee. "A lot of work has to be done outside the meetings."

Although the committee only recently met, University officials have been grappling with the tuition issue for quite some time.

Last year, the UNC-CH Board of Trustees formed a similar task force to draft a one-year campus-based tuition increase. That committee later proposed a $400 permanent tuition hike to the BOT, which board members approved in January.

The UNC-system Board of Governors later adjusted the BOT's recommendation, trimming it down to $300 and also approving across-the-board increases for the system's universities -- an 8 percent tuition hike for in-state students and 12 percent for out-of-state students.

Since then, campus leaders have said they are making it a priority to ensure tuition increases at UNC-CH are more predictable.

A written charge to the task force from July states that in-state undergraduate tuition and fees have increased 63 percent in a three-year period -- from $2,365 a year in the academic year 1999-2000 to $3,856 in 2002-03.

The 20-member committee consists of administrators, faculty, staff, BOT members and students, including Student Body President Jen Daum's chief of staff, Rebekah Burford. Shelton said Daum has the option of being on the committee as well, although she did not attend Monday's meeting.

Short five members, the group sorted through documents Monday, including reports that analyzed implementations and uses for campus-based tuition.

Task force members also were given various statistics to discuss, including figures on freshman admission, UNC-CH funding and comparisons of state allocations versus enrollments.

Task force members then discussed whether tuition is the most efficient way to raise revenue, said Shirley Ort, director of scholarships and student aid.

"Nobody, of course, had any easy answers," she said. "There was good representation though. I think it's going to be an even better discussion than what we had last year."

Ort served on both last year's tuition committee and a similar one in 1999.

Shelton said he hopes the task force will meet at least five more times before the end of the semester so it can make initial recommendations to the BOT. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 26.

In the meantime, committee members will be studying the impacts of past tuition increases and any other elements to the equation they feel is necessary in the process, Shelton said. "We want to make sure people are working on as much information as possible," he said. "I think the long-term goal is to have this be an item of discussion each year."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.