Tuition increases always can be tough pills for students and their families to swallow. They can be even tougher to take if the extra money is not being used to create the best possible learning environment for the student body as a whole.
That's why it was a strong move on the part of the Tuition Task Force to take new merit-based scholarships off its list of priorities related to potential increase scenarios.
By pre-emptively eliminating the link between tuition increase money and any new University merit-based scholarships, task force members have signified that future hikes will be used to fund the most important priorities.
More tuition increases are virtual certainties. But students shouldn't have to see the money from those hikes going toward paying the cost of attendance for other students with especially impressive academic and extracurricular exploits. Instead, this additional money should be allocated in ways that will benefit the entire student body - not just one segment of it.
Increasing funding for and the number of available merit-based scholarships definitely should be on the University's list of long-term goals. After all, the merit awards UNC already has help to bring in some of the best and brightest students from within and outside the state - and attracting these types of students does translate into a better academic environment.
But at this point, there are higher priorities, including faculty and teaching assistant salaries, toward which increase money should be directed.
Of course, task force members are thinking long and hard about oft-cited faculty retention concerns - and rightfully so. Although merit-based scholarships remain significant, focusing on the overall strength of the faculty should be of utmost importance to the task force.
It's especially refreshing to see that the task force hasn't minced words and has voiced its firm support for this particular course of action. With the task force's deadline quickly approaching, its members are being resolute in their goals and proposals.
If it's inevitable that UNC students will have a higher cost of education to pay by the start of the next academic year, their money should be spent in all the right ways.
