Board of Trustees focus on campus finance in last meeting of the year

More than half of UNC’s Board of Trustees members come from business backgrounds, so Wednesday’s numbers on campus finances were a familiar sight.

In its last meeting of the academic year, members considered everything from academic success measures to student fees to providing sexual health education.

Graduate school stipend

Kiran Bhardwaj , president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation, asked the Board of Trustees to consider raising the minimum graduate student stipend from $15,200 to $20,800. The current stipend is $5,600 short of the living wage in Orange County when student fees are considered.

Doing so would cost the University $3.3 million, according to a GPSF analysis. The stipend is key for student success and recruitment as UNC’s stipend is the third lowest among its public peers, Bhardwaj said.

“The sciences and health sciences (stipends) are more or less above the minimum,” Bhardwaj said. “The social sciences are all more or less running around the minimum.”

Agreeing with Bhardwaj, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jim Dean said raising the stipend was a matter of competitiveness.

Considering success

Dean said a new initiative under his office, the Carolina Metrics Project , would help UNC answer the question of what constitutes academic “success.”

The University currently uses 40 or 50 measures , which is too many, Dean said. The project would not sugar coat where UNC is lacking.

“This isn’t a ranking exercise; this is for us,” he said. “It’s meant for the leadership to get an unvarnished picture of what we are.”

Campus Health fees in limbo

The finance and infrastructure committee discussed the raising and lowering of student fees.

Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Kevin Seitz said in the past six years, fees increased 11 percent, or $200. He said the total of UNC general fees is the lowest in the system at $1,524.99.

“We have limits on how high we can increase fees,” he said. “It is 6.5 percent right now and will probably be changed to 5 percent.”

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp said the student health fee has been a point of contention for quite some time, and when he went to the UNC-system Board of Governors to request a $7 increase to the fee, the board asked why the fee was already so high.

The board also wanted to know why Campus Health Services was still necessary after the implementation of UNC system-wide health care and if Campus Health offers services that are beyond the parameters of the health fee, such as sexual health education, said Crisp.

“We are uniquely and specifically designed around the needs of our particular students in both our proximity, having everything in one place and having everything to and through the academic system,” he said.

Crisp said to achieve the $20 fee reduction, he is ready to remove sexual health education and programs like Interactive Theater Carolina , which simulates experiences related to identity issues like race and sexuality, and access or inclusion programs that deal with diversity.

But the programs would not necessarily disappear, he said.

“I am prepared to remove some things from the fee and paying for them in some other fashion ... I am not talking about removing the services,” he said.

“I will cut a lot of things before I cut safety and wellness.”

Crisp said the Board of Governors asked the committee to come back with a proposal that paid attention to the questions they were asking.

“I don’t want to be fighting a battle with the Board of Governors, and if giving them this in order to buy us time to avoid the battle and do a comprehensive review to address legitimate questions, then I am certainly willing to do that,” he said.

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