Task force members will choose from three specific tuition proposals -- most likely involving three-year increases of $300 to $400 per year to generate $20 million and $27 million respectively -- at their next and final meeting of the year, Dec. 19, during Winter Break. Task force Co-Chairman Provost Robert Shelton is expected to craft the proposals to be considered at the meeting.
Much of the group's debate centered on both the length of the plan and whether tuition should be increased by a fixed dollar amount or by a certain percentage. Members discussed numerous options for earmarking tuition funds, eventually deciding that in this tuition cycle, increasing the student-faculty ratio with $12.5 million in new faculty positions would not be a priority.
And in the process, UNC-CH's staff members were granted an unprecedented wish -- to possibly see a portion of funds from tuition hikes supplement their salaries. Many task force members were adamant about including staff pay in an eventual proposal even though they admitted that the UNC-system Board of Governors likely won't accept a plan with such terms included.
According to a summary prepared by the task force, $18.3 million is needed for UNC-CH's staff in the next three years. Task force member and Employee Forum Chairman Tommy Griffin presented the group with a resolution passed by the forum last week asking that the University's staff receive some of the tuition money.
Under the state's fiscal 2002-03 budget, no staff in the UNC system received any salary increases.
"This was a very hard-debated resolution," Griffin said. "The staff need any help and all the help it can get."
The same issue was brought up at the group's last meeting, with some not sure if the BOG would approve a plan with staff salaries receiving funds. Members said Thursday that the BOG has told at least two other system schools, UNC-Greensboro and Appalachian State University, that tuition money can't go to staff salaries because it is the N.C. General Assembly's duty to fund state personnel.
But as the meeting progressed, it became increasingly clear that the committee is willing to include staff in whatever package it considers in December.
Task force member and political science Professor Pamela Conover said that even if the proposal is shot down, it will send a message to the state. "I think it's a matter of equity and justice," she said.
