UNC-system won't see tuition increase revenues, legislators say

RALEIGH — Student leaders lobbying legislators for a return of tuition revenue to UNC-system schools were given little encouragement Thursday.

The need to balance the state budget makes it unlikely the universities will receive the funds, legislators said.

“We can’t print money,” said N.C. General Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, whom student leaders met with Thursday. “We have to balance the budget.”

UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Jasmin Jones, five other UNC-system student body presidents and Greg Doucette, president of the Association of Student Governments, traveled to the capitol. Their goal was to convince legislators to return tuition-increase dollars to the system, rather than the state’s general fund.

The Association of Student Governments is making the campaign a central focus for the rest of the semester.

Student body presidents have been collecting signatures on a petition voicing their request since the beginning of the semester and plan to send out a press release to local media outlets later this month to put further pressure on legislators.

At UNC-Chapel Hill, 2,227 students have signed the petition, almost half of the 5,000 that Jones pledged to gather.

ASG members also plan to conduct an e-mail and phone campaign later in the semester, Jones said.

But many of the presidents’ terms will end in April, just when the real work needs to begin, Jones said. The legislature resumes session in May.

Holliman said that North Carolina has seen revenue decline by 20 percent, and budget cuts would have been much worse if legislators had not raised the sales tax.

“Everyone’s going to feel some hurt,” he said.

Cortland Mercer, student body president of UNC-Asheville, said he was not discouraged by Holliman’s lukewarm response.

Brad Congleton, student body president at East Carolina University, said student leaders would continue to fight for the money to be returned.

“For tuition dollars, we just want them to remain tuition dollars,” Jones said.



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