At the UNC Board of Governors meeting on Thursday, Sept. 14, board members elected to maintain undergraduate tuition rates at UNC System schools for an eighth consecutive year. The BOG also acknowledged campus safety throughout UNC System schools and introduced UNC alumna Shayna Hill as the new chair of the UNC System Staff Assembly.
What’s new?
- A motion was approved to keep in-state tuition rates unchanged for undergraduate students throughout the 2023-24 school year.
- UNC System President Peter Hans said that by maintaining unchanged tuition rates, they will be lower than those during the end of the Obama Administration, when adjusted for inflation. He said rising college costs over the past two generations have damaged the system’s ability to reach out to prospective students, especially those from poor and working families.
- “We need families across the state to hear that good news,” Hans said. “There is a lot of concern nationwide about falling confidence in colleges and universities. It’s been well-documented in survey after survey that Americans are more skeptical of the value of a college degree and that uncertainty is affecting the decisions families make.”
- The announcement will mark the eighth consecutive year the UNC System’s tuition rates have been held constant. Hans added he hopes that the system will be able to sustain unchanged tuition rates for a full decade.
- The Board of Governors observed a moment of silence for UNC associate professor Zijie Yan, who was killed on Aug. 28 in Caudill Labs.
- Randall Ramsey, UNC Board of Governors chair, said the board is focused on supporting campus police officers through training and mental health resources.
- “To our campus police officers, we thank you for your bravery and dedication,” Ramsey said. “You’re dedicated to serving the communities, and because of you, our campuses are safer.”
- Shayna Hill, former chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill Employee Forum, has been announced as the new chair of the UNC System Staff Assembly.
- The UNC System Staff Assembly is an advisory body of non-faculty employees who represent the staff of the 17 universities comprising the UNC System. Hill will replace the outgoing chair Crystal Woods next month.
- Woods said streamlined internal hiring and promotion strategies at UNC System schools is helping to recruit and retain talented staff within the system. She said she is confident that the new leadership at the Staff Assembly will further develop and nurture staff.
- “While educating North Carolina students remains our top priority, having the best possible faculty and staff to teach, mentor, coach and train those students is also a top priority,” Woods said.
- The Committee on University Governance discussed three nominations for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission.
- Debora Powell, member of the Wilson County Schools Board of Education; Taleek Harlee McCray, a teacher at Purnell Swett High School in Robeson County; and Patrick Brennan, vice president of public policy and government relations at Learning Ally, were all nominated and approved by the board.
- The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority Board of Directors filled two vacant spots by nominating Jim Rose and Beth Anderson, which were also approved by the BOG.
What is the BOG?
- The Board of Governors is the governing body of the UNC System, consisting of 24 voting members who are elected by the N.C. General Assembly. The president of the UNC Association of Student Governments also serves as a nonvoting, ex officio member of the Board.
The board will meet again on Oct. 19.
