UNC Gets Bad Image From BOG

The UNC-system Board of Governors is making us look bad.

This past Friday, the BOG approached a complex and delicate issue -- that of tuition increases -- and unanimously screwed the administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill.

By a unanimous vote, the BOG approved a one-year freeze on tuition increases for the 2003-04 school year to halt the continually escalating price of public higher education in North Carolina.

The vote comes on the heels of a December recommendation by UNC-CH's Tuition Task Force to increase tuition $1,050 over three years. The money would have gone toward alleviating disparities in faculty, staff and teaching assistant salaries.

Before making this final recommendation, the task force was made aware of the likelihood that the BOG would approve a moratorium on tuition increases. But the task force members felt it necessary to go ahead with their recommendation to make a statement of what they believe is best for UNC-CH.

Ignoring the wishes of the campuses they oversee, the BOG members took the easy road by approving the tuition freeze. As a result, the BOG ends up looking like the voice of compassion and reason while UNC-CH's Tuition Task Force ends up looking like a heartless chump.

The line the BOG members are pulling is that they're looking out for the hardworking students and families of the great state of North Carolina.

These honorable citizens have fallen on hard financial times, and dag gummit, the BOG is going to do its best to save them from any more grief.

Implicit in that statement, however, is that UNC-CH is the big, bad university that is ruthlessly sucking its students and their families financially dry.

The only thing stopping the UNC-CH administrators from doing so next year is the intervening hand of the BOG.

What the BOG is really doing, however, is robbing UNC-CH of its options.

The money to run the University has to come from somewhere, and it's pretty clear that it's not going to come from the state legislature.

When the N.C. General Assembly goes back into session this month, legislators could be facing a budget deficit of up to $2 billion.

Although touting education as a top priority, legislators have made it quite clear in the past couple years that they believe the universities can manage to trim some fat, as indicated by the budget cuts they have forced UNC-CH administrators to make.

So if the money is not going to come from the state and it's not allowed to come from the students, where is it going to come from?

It's hard to imagine the University could take a hit of more budget cuts while maintaining the quality of education at UNC-CH, as class sections already have been reduced and a slew of employee positions have been eliminated.

Although it is by no means ideal that the money to fund such things come from tuition dollars -- especially because increases at UNC-CH have totaled $1,286 since 1999-2000, an increase of 84 percent -- it is one of the few options the University has left to ensure that the quality of the UNC-CH experience endures.

And it is not altogether a bad option. Built into the UNC-CH Tuition Task Force's recommendation is a financial aid package that would ensure that financially needy students would not be harmed by the tuition increases.

As for UNC-CH students not on financial aid, a good portion can afford to shoulder the burden, as the median family income of UNC-CH students has been quoted at about $80,000.

Tuition increases should not be the default source of University funds, but UNC-CH recognizes that it is a viable option when the state turns a cold financial shoulder.

But now that the BOG has robbed the University of that option for the coming school year, UNC-CH is left broke and with a reputation of wanting to gouge its students.

The BOG goes out gangbusters while UNC-CH takes the rap.

Karey Wutkowski can be reached at karey@email.unc.edu.