TO THE EDITOR:
Freshman Republicans in the legislature managed to slash the state budget by 59 percent ($27.8 billion) in a single year, leaving the University a $100 million hole in its own operating budget.
Let’s say that the tuition hikes approved Feb. 10 contribute roughly $10 million and another $20 million will come as a loan from the UNC Health Care System as advertised by the Carolina Budget Information website.
What about the remaining $70 million? The answer is efficiency.
Carolina Counts is the University-wide initiative to improve the efficiency of campus operations and reduce administrative costs.
Since 2010, the program has achieved $50 million in savings from 94 different projects in procurement, information technology, human resources, centers, institutes, research support, compliance, energy services, facilities services and space utilization.
Instead of focusing on tuition, students should pressure the University to expand Carolina Counts to realize more cost savings, especially in the areas of organizational structure and finance, where there are only four active projects and a total of zero completed projects to date.
Logan Stephens ’10
