Tuition panel to see first numbers

About halfway through Wednesday's meeting of the Tuition Advisory Task Force, Provost Robert Shelton, co-chairman of the group, leaned back in his chair and posed a question to the committee: "All right, so what's next?"

During the previous two meetings this month, members of the task force waded through dozens of pages of statistical documents to familiarize themselves with all aspects of campus-based tuition.

Now the task force is ready to move forward.

At the meeting's end, Shelton and Student Body President Seth Dearmin, the other task force co-chairman, said that by next week's meeting, they will have prepared a number of tuition proposals.

The plans will not be an endorsement, Shelton said, but rather will lay out potential action.

The proposals most likely will demonstrate how graduate students and faculty could benefit from tuition increases.

During the task force's discussions thus far, the needs of graduate students have been at the forefront of the agenda.

That attention was evident when Shelton invited Mike Brady, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation, to join Dearmin and him in hammering out the proposals.

"That's something we wanted to talk about from the get-go," Dearmin said in reference to graduate students' needs.

UNC must provide more money for things such as raising teaching assistant salaries, task force members say, or it risks losing top graduate students.

If a hike is approved, undergraduates would provide the bulk of the funds, most of which probably would benefit graduate students, if the task force follows its current direction.

According to documents presented to the task force, undergraduates would account for the majority of tuition revenue funds.

For every $100 that tuition is raised, undergraduates would provide almost $1.6 million, compared to graduates' $919,200.

"Ultimately, part of the burden is going to have to be carried by undergraduate students," Brady said. "There's no way around that."

But that's not to say undergraduate students' interests have been left out of the discussion.

Members say investing in graduate students will improve undergraduates' educational experience.

Graduate students who assist in classes or labs create a better learning environment, members say.

"I know that no students want to see their tuition continually raised," Brady said. "But at the same time the issue of TA stipends is so dire it really needs to finally get some serious attention."

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.