Raising tuition without raising quality harms UNC

TO THE EDITOR:

It seems that in the debate over out-of-state tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill, those (such as Erskine Bowles) who advocate increasing the burden on out-of-staters are quick to cite the higher rates at such “peer” institutions as the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia as a justification of UNC raising its tuition to similar levels.

What is never mentioned, however, is that UNC consistently ranks below these institutions in yearly rankings of public universities.

Confronted with roughly equal prices, the top out-of-state applicants will choose to go to a better public school or a slightly more expensive and far better private one.

Why pay the same for an inferior product?

Sure there will always be plenty of out-of-state students willing to pay to go to school here. Just don’t expect them to be of the same outstanding academic caliber if UNC continues raising tuition at this dizzying rate.

Brock Baker
UNC ’09