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Kenan-Flagler waits for final decision on business school fees

UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School will be adding a student fee for undergraduate Business majors.
UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School will be adding a student fee for undergraduate Business majors.

The trustees did not vote the fee down, but they did not include it in their list of recommended fees, so no fee will be in effect for the 2017-18 school year.

Douglas Shackelford, dean of the business school, said while the proposal they made to the Board of Trustees had already been amended based on feedback from lower committees, he does not know when the University could expect a decision to be made regarding the proposal.

“From our perspective, it’s out of our hands,” Shackelford said. “We’ve made our proposal and it’s gone to the chancellor and the provost and no decision has been made right now. The proposal hasn’t been approved or denied; it’s kind of in category three right now.”

The trustees’ lack of a recommendation follows objections from lower committees that heard the fee this fall.

“The Student Fee Audit Committee recommended against (the business school’s proposals) a couple of times and have stuck with that recommendation,” Harry Edwards, student body treasurer and chairperson of the the committee, said. “We raised a number of concerns to the specific proposals.”

Edwards said the amended proposal the business school presented in the meeting with the Board of Trustees on Wednesday addressed many of the concerns his committee had with the initial proposal presented earlier in the year, but it still did not address the concerns about diversity.

“After we heard the first proposal and had issues with it, we went through in great detail and issued recommendations for what we’d want to see,” he said. “Included in that was a diversity plan included in that — a suggestion that the fee level be reduced. But essentially the whole idea then, a couple months ago, was that they can come back with a reduced proposal.”

Edwards said he was concerned the increase in the business school fees would be detrimental to current and future business school students.

“They did issue a new proposal and it did address some of our feedback, but it didn’t really come close to addressing our diversity concerns,” he said.

Shackelford said at this time he cannot say when a decision will be made regarding the business school’s proposal.

Edwards is hopeful that a new proposal will be reached in the spring.

Danielle Fraley, a junior business administration major, said she is in partial agreement with the business school’s proposal.

“So I was initially definitely opposed to it so I would be paying the fees after my time. My stance is that students who are already taking classes in the business school should have their fees waived,” Fraley said.

“However, I definitely do think that if the fee increase is going to be used to improve their facilities, then I’m for it. But from my understanding, the fees are going to be used to admit more students and create online classes, which I’m personally opposed to. I would rather have the money go to improving the facilities and things of that nature.”

university@dailytarheel.com

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