BOG continues tuition program

The UNC-system Board of Governors decided last week to continue the program that gives free tuition at system schools to graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Math.

System officials think the program will improve the quality of students who graduate from state universities by keeping graduates of the Durham magnet school, which attracts some of the state’s brightest students, in North Carolina.

“The goal is to keep more bright students here,” said Gretchen Bataille, UNC-system senior vice president for academic affairs.

Bataille said the merit-based tuition waivers also encourage more competition among prospective NCSSM students.

Applications to NCSSM increased by 43 percent from 2004 to 2005, an increase that could stem from the tuition grant program, according to a report by the UNC-system Office of the President.

In fall 2004, 190 graduates from NCSSM enrolled in UNC-system schools. And 121 of these students benefit from the NCSSM Tuition Grant Program.

The reason for the discrepancy is that the state’s 2004 Technical Corrections Act limits the amount of grant money students can get if the funding they receive from other sources exceeds the overall cost of tuition.

The BOG said last week that it would like to reform this aspect of the waiver.

“Students with the greatest financial need don’t benefit because the grant is only for tuition,” Bataille said.

“If they get a Pell Grant, they cannot benefit from this grant.”

The policy also does not benefit lower-income graduates, who cannot afford the costs of a college education, according to the report.

But the program is not without opposition.

“The whole thing is a bad idea,” said George Leef, executive director of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. “It cannot be improved; it needs to simply be dropped.”

Leef helped author a report from the Pope Center on Jan. 26 that called the grant program unfair.

He added that the program offers no benefits to the economy or the labor market of North Carolina.

But NCSSM officials say students leave their homes at a younger age and enter a strenuous academic environment — making them valid targets of a tuition waiver.

“Students make a lot of sacrifices,” said Craig Rowe, director for communications for NCSSM. “I see these tuition programs as UNC-system talent identification.”

Proponents of the program also argue that after graduating from a UNC-system school, a majority of Science and Math will remain in North Carolina to pursue a job.

“Students meet connections in-state, and this helps you decide where to get a job,” Rowe said.

But Leef said students won’t turn away jobs from outside the state because they graduated from a system school.

“The top students are unlikely to want to stay in North Carolina.”

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