UNC ranks 61st for its lobbying expenditures

During the past five years, higher education institutions more than doubled the amount of money they spent on lobbying, an increase from $23.4 million to $61.7 million.

The number of lobbying institutions also more than doubled during that time, according to a review of federal lobbying records by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

This is due, in part, to Congress' increased spending on directed, noncompetitive grants, which went up from $495 million to $2 billion.

The Chronicle reported that the UNC system ranked 477th in expenditures on lobbying of the federal government in 2003.

UNC-Chapel Hill initially was ranked 25th on the same list, with a reported expenditure of $240,000 for in-house lobbying and $120,000 for a private lobbying firm.

But Jeff Brainard, a reporter for The Chronicle, told The Daily Tar Heel that the information published about UNC-CH was incorrect. UNC-CH actually falls at 61, with a total expenditure of $240,000, evenly split between in-house and private lobbying.

The Chronicle's initial assessment included the private lobbying figure twice in UNC-CH's total lobbying expenditures. The total for 2003 thus was reported at $360,000.

Though the mistake has been corrected, "it puts UNC very high on a list where we don't belong," said Allison Rosenberg, UNC-CH's assistant vice chancellor for research and federal affairs. "It gives us a bad rep."

UNC-CH employs in-house and private lobbyists to compete for funds for endeavors including research. But the University's total lobbying expenditures are relatively low because UNC-CH submits most projects for consideration for peer-rewarded grants instead of vying for earmarked funds.

"In general, we oppose targeted congressional funding," Rosenberg said of earmarked funds, which are directed grants allocated by Congress to particular causes including universities interested in research.

"No one in the scientific community really advocates it."

But Rosenberg said lobbying for earmarks is growing, and UNC-CH needs to move with the trend.

"But we have a policy," she said. "We only lobby for earmarks if the project we are trying to fund is not an appropriate project to compete for peer-rewarded grants, or if we're trying to fund some expensive technology."

Mark Fleming, vice president for government relations for the UNC system, said private colleges were probably responsible for the increases in university spending on efforts to lobby for congressional funding.

"If anything, we're relying more on our grassroots for support," he said. "We depend heavily on alumni and faculty and their correspondence with legislatures."

And Fleming said the UNC system has had little trouble obtaining government funding when necessary. "The North Carolina legislature has always been very supportive of the University system, and in Washington, campuses do well with getting funding through grants."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.