(Tuition hikes are never welcome but props to J.J. Raynor and the task force for working to justify them)
Tuition hikes hurt. For a lot of students they're going to hurt even more this year than usual.
But no one can deny that the need is there.
The University is between a rock and a hard place as it grapples with being both a leading institute for higher learning and maintaining its status as the University of the people.
At the tuition and fee advisory task force's second meeting of the year on Monday Provost Bernadette Gray-Little the task force's co-chairwoman produced a breakdown of last year's fee and tuition increase recommendations at the request of Student Body President J.J. Raynor.
Raynor was right to ask that hikes be documented and justified. Students deserve to know where their dollars are going.
Turns out about 80 percent went to faculty salaries and student awards last year.
It's tough to argue that those aren't dollars well spent.
But Raynor rightly continues to point out that students' needs should be weighed heavily in the decisions that affect them.
She went to bat for students again in the Monday meeting and thanks in large part to her advocacy the task force agreed to consider four potential levels of tuition increases for nonresident undergraduate students.
It shouldn't be a foregone conclusion that the highest option is chosen. The task force should continue in the trend of this year to equate in detail the need with the increase.
And there ought to be a similar justification for graduate student tuition increases.
In-state graduate students are likely to see the largest tuition increases percentage-wise.
(Graduate and Professional Student Federation President Cindy Spurlock did not attend either of this year's tuition task force meetings and GPSF Secretary Keith Lee was noticeably silent as hikes were discussed Monday.)
University officials certainly should keep in mind students as tuition talks move forward.
But students should also keep in mind that if UNC doesn't continue to improve their degrees won't be worth much anyway.
