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(03/19/08 4:00am)
The next round of state budget talks is still months away, but university officials are already downplaying expectations for increased funding.
With the national economy in the midst of a deepening slowdown, state fiscal analysts have provided cautious estimates for revenue growth.
That, in turn, is driving concerns among state agencies about potential budget problems.
"We certainly realize there are dark clouds on the economic horizon," said Rob Nelson, UNC-system vice president for finance. "We're going to have to work with the General Assembly. We always do that."
The university system saw an impressive 10.6 percent increase in state financing last year and will be asking for another 12 percent when lawmakers reconvene in May.
Officials readily admit that it is an ambitious request.
An analysis prepared by the legislature's Fiscal Research Division in February cautioned that "revenue growth is expected to slow dramatically during the last five months of the fiscal year."
While income tax revenues remain strong because of the state's relatively robust employment rate, fiscal analysts have already noted a drop in revenues from sales taxes and real estate collections.
While no one is yet anticipating a dramatic budget shortfall, there is a sense that funding growth will slow.
"We understand the economy is not good right now," said UNC-system President Erskine Bowles.
"We understand the General Assembly may not be able to fund our needs. But we need the General Assembly to understand what our needs are."
Almost 45 percent of the university's request is for faculty salary increases, which has long been one of the system's highest priorities.
The system needs about $70 million to reach its long-standing goal of bringing all faculty salaries up to the 80th percentile of each school's peer group.
"We're not going to be able to attract or keep great faculty unless we get there," Bowles said, speaking last week to the system Board of Governors.
"We can't get in the position where the public schools are, where you can't attract the best teachers."
Also high on the university wish list is more than $29 million in new safety funding, $67.8 million for new research initiatives and $300,000 to expand online course offerings.
Bowles and his staff made a deliberate effort to craft priorities in line with the highly publicized UNC Tomorrow initiative.
University officials have been doing their best to promote UNC Tomorrow, a comprehensive study of the system's future, as an answer to the state's long-term economic problems.
Their hope is that lawmakers will look at university spending as an investment, especially with the state facing an uncertain economic forecast.
"That's our Bible," Bowles said of UNC Tomorrow. "That's where we've got tremendous momentum."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/25/08 5:00am)
If UNC-Charlotte moves forward with its plan to field a football team, it could provide the first serious test of the UNC system's strict limit on student fees.
Because athletic programs cannot receive tuition money or state funding, every penny of football startup costs would have to come from student fees and private donations.
UNC-C Chancellor Philip Dubois has already acknowledged that the program would require a fee hike in excess of the system's 6.5 percent annual limit.
"If we decide to move forward - and it looks like we will - I will probably be coming to you to request an exception (to the policy)," Dubois told the UNC-system Board of Governors last month.
An exception for an athletic fee would present an interesting test case for the UNC system's new fee policy, given that students at Charlotte have expressed strong support for the program.
System officials have historically been reluctant to second-guess fee requests that enjoy broad campus support, since the students have shown a willingness to pay more.
But that tradition could clash with a renewed focus on controlling costs.
"Campuses know now that no matter what, their athletic fees can only go up a certain amount," said Hannah Gage, a member of the BOG. "A school like UNC-C can calculate exactly how much they can reasonably expect from athletic fees as they examine the costs of a new football program."
It is already clear that Charlotte would need substantially more than it could get under the 6.5 percent yearly cap.
Fees for the 2008-09 academic year are set at $1,304, so the school could ask for an increase of only about $85 the next year.
And that $85 would have to cover increased costs in everything from health services to student activities, leaving only a portion for football.
"The rest will have to be raised privately," Gage said. "And that's a lot of private money."
At a school as large as Charlotte, football startup costs are expected to run well in excess of $10 million. On top of the extra funding for facilities, equipment, staff and scholarships, the school would also need additional women's programs to meet Title IX requirements.
All of that is likely to give system officials pause as they examine the merits of a policy exception to fund a Charlotte football program.
But with students and UNC-C trustees likely to stand firmly behind the proposal, it will require a lot of political will to severely limit the school's athletic fee.
When UNC-Pembroke's student body president spoke to the board in 2005 in support of his school's new football program, he made a blunt argument.
"If the students want it, and we're willing to pay for it, I don't see how you can tell us 'no,'" he said.
Officials at Charlotte could soon be making a similar case.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/15/08 5:00am)
Erskine Bowles is not a member of UNC's chancellor search committee. But long-standing ties to UNC-Chapel Hill could give the UNC-system president key influence in selecting the University's next chancellor. The chairman of UNC's search committee, University trustee Nelson Schwab, is a longtime friend of Bowles. The two cofounded Carousel Capital, a major investment firm based in Charlotte, in 1996. Schwab remains the managing director of Carousel, and Bowles continues to serve as a senior adviser to the firm. That puts the two in regular contact. "He's one of my closest friends," Bowles said of Schwab. "I've asked Nelson a few times how the search is going." And so far, Bowles said, he has been impressed with the candidates being considered. During an interview last week, he said the current list includes both internal and external candidates. "I think the search committee has been very receptive to what I said I would consider," Bowles said. As system president, Bowles has the power to interview and choose from three nominees chosen by the committee; he has said his involvement will not go beyond that role. "I shouldn't have any involvement in it until it comes to me," he said, describing his discussions with committee members as "cursory." But John Sanders, a professor emeritus in the School of Government who has been a close observer of past searches, said it is common for the president to remain involved from the early stages. "There has been, in the past, at least some communication between the search committee and the president as the search has been going on," Sanders said. "I would be astonished if there were not some discussions between them." In addition to his friendship with Schwab, Bowles has a lengthy personal history in Chapel Hill. He graduated from UNC in 1967 before earning his MBA at Columbia University. His father, Skipper Bowles, was a prominent fundraiser for the University, as well as a trustee. His service to UNC was so highly regarded that the South Campus road near the Smith Center is named for him. Whether that has heightened Bowles' interest in the chancellor search is difficult to gauge. "It's something he holds very close," said Jeff Davies, Bowles' chief of staff. Davies, like many UNC-system officials, said there is a palpable sense of excitement about the search. There is an almost universal expectation that the University's prestige will draw a top-notch applicant pool. "Can you imagine?" Davies said, smiling at the thought. "We're talking about the cream of the crop in higher education." Given those high expectations, Bowles could have the toughest job of anyone in the search process. It will be up to him to turn down two of the committee's three nominees. "I expect those three candidates will meet the criteria I set out, and if they do, I'll have a hard time picking the best among them." Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(01/31/08 5:00am)
With UNC officials still savoring the success of a $2.38 billion fundraising campaign, federal lawmakers are taking a critical look at some of the country's largest university endowments.
A total of 136 campuses nationwide have endowments valued at a half-billion dollars or more, and the Senate Finance Committee has requested detailed information about the way each school uses those funds.
Specifically, senators want to know why tuition has continued to rise even as the nation's top universities have grown steadily wealthier.
"There are a lot of concerns over the cost of higher education, particularly at private universities," said Dick Mann, UNC vice chancellor for finance and administration. "Places like Carolina and other public universities I really think are not the focus of this."
Nonetheless, UNC officials have until the end of February to draft a response, and Mann is already working with others in the finance and financial aid departments to collect information.
While an overall endowment of more than $2 billion puts UNC squarely in the top tier of public universities, it is dwarfed by some of the largest private funds.
Harvard University, at the top of the list, had more than $34 billion in its endowment as of June 2007, with Yale taking the second spot with more than $22 billion.
The purpose of an endowment, Mann explained, is to accumulate enough funding to create sizable investment returns. Those market returns are used to fund scholarships, professorships and other programs.
"The intent is to maintain a steady stream of income," Mann said. "You want to be in a position where you're meeting your budget every year but also not eroding your endowment."
Far from eroding, many of the nation's largest university endowments have been expanding rapidly. Lawmakers want to know how that money is benefitting students, and specifically how it is being used to expand financial aid.
At UNC, a relatively small portion of the endowment goes to financial aid, in part because many donations to the University come with specific instructions.
"Donors often specify how they want a gift to be spent," said Shirley Ort, director of scholarships and for student aid at UNC.
Ort said the University's student aid endowment is valued at about $120 million and constitutes only a small portion of the overall aid given out to students.
"Of our total aid that we disperse, our endowment provides about 3 percent," she said.
Most aid comes from state and federal sources, not privately funded scholarships.
At universities across the country, officials are concerned that federal lawmakers might begin requiring campuses to spend at least 5 percent of their endowments each year.
That idea has been suggested in recent congressional debates and would mirror a rule that already applies to many tax-exempt charities.
Mann said UNC probably meets the 5 percent target already.
An even greater concern, say higher education experts, is that Congress could begin taxing the billions of dollars in investment returns that endowments bring in each year.
"Congress is looking under every rock they can find for new revenue," said Kimrey Rhinehardt, UNC-system vice president for federal relations. "This would generate a substantial amount of money."
In their request for information, lawmakers said they would "consider potential policies" related to endowments but provided no specifics.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/28/08 5:00am)
GREENSBORO - Student leaders from across the state conducted a perfectly uneventful meeting Saturday.
(01/25/08 5:00am)
The UNC-system Association of Student Governments is facing a make-or-break meeting this weekend in Greensboro.
(01/18/08 5:00am)
The UNC system is readying for a public relations tug-of-war over a proposed biodefense lab in Granville County.
The University system has been a key player in lobbying to bring the federal research facility, which will focus on combating agricultural diseases, to North Carolina.
UNC has worked alongside a consortium of local officials and private companies to convince the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to select the Granville County site from among four other national finalists, touting the research opportunities and economic benefits of the high-security lab.
That campaign was taking place largely below the public radar until a recent outcry from several environmental groups.
"I don't think this facility is ever going to happen," said Janet Marsh, executive director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. "How anyone can trust the Department of Homeland Security, with its record of incompetence, I have no idea."
So far, in community meetings and news coverage of the proposed lab - known officially as the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility - trust has emerged as the central issue.
UNC officials, led by Dr. Warwick Arden at N.C. State University, have stressed that the lab will not work on high-risk human pathogens.
They have also highlighted the impressive safety record at federal research facilities.
"I have a young family, and I would be delighted to live next to this facility," Arden said during a public hearing last September.
For opponents of the lab, those assurances amount to little more than wishful thinking.
Marsh summed up the feelings of many opponents by questioning the true purpose of the facility.
"We are very concerned that this is a bioweapons lab proposal," she said. "An outbreak is a very nightmarish scenario."
Marsh said UNC officials and other lab supporters are being naive in trusting the federal government. "They are seeing dollar signs when they should be asking questions."
University officials have expressed frustration at what they see as deliberate misinformation by the lab's opponents.
Arden called some of the allegations about the facility "a little on the paranoid side," insisting that pathogen research is a far cry from bioweapons development.
"This politics of fear, these scare tactics, are having an impact on the general public," Arden said. "That's really unfortunate."
Increasingly vocal opposition is already having a political impact, at least at the local level.
While the vast majority of elected leaders across the state remain supportive, several Granville County commissioners recently announced concerns about the facility.
At the September hearing, dozens of Granville County residents spoke in insulting terms to government officials at all levels, emphasizing the distrust that surrounds such a sensitive government project.
"How much do you get paid to shovel this bullshit down our throats?" asked one resident, eliciting cheers from the audience.
Partly in response to the increased public scrutiny of the project, homeland security officials are scheduling another round of hearings at all five of the potential sites across the country. Exact dates will be announced soon.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/11/08 5:00am)
WINSTON-SALEM - The UNC Tomorrow Commission delivered its much-awaited final report to the system's Board of Governors Thursday, laying out 28 pages of broad recommendations for the future of North Carolina's public campuses.
The commission's charge was, in essence, to travel around the state and ask North Carolinians what they want from their public universities. It turns out they want quite a lot.
"The response across the state was overwhelming," said Norma Houston, executive director of UNC Tomorrow.
Now the board must decide if those demands can be met.
Their answer will go a long way in determining what public higher education in North Carolina will look like for decades to come.
The report offers some stark challenges to the traditional model of university education, asking UNC administrators to focus far more resources on nontraditional paths to a college degree.
Taken as a whole, the commission's findings pose a basic, almost philosophical question of what a public university ought to be doing in the 21st century.
"The report of the commission is a really good start, but that's all it is," said BOG Chairman Jim Phillips. "There are an awful lot of recommendations in there, and we're not just gonna snap our fingers and make them happen."
The first task will be boiling down 28 pages into a realistic list of action items.
Given the breadth of the commission's suggestions - "Maintain and increase the quality of a UNC education," for example - that promises to be an arduous undertaking.
There are some relatively specific steps outlined in the report, such as providing clearer information to high school guidance counselors.
How much involvement can a university system have in K-12 education? How can UNC affect the slide in male college enrollment? Can colleges increase online classes and open satellite campuses without sacrificing their core mission?
All of that is on the table as the board begins to formulate a response to the commission report.
"This is a big ship. To move it one degree or another is really hard," UNC-system President Erskine Bowles said, referring to the 17-campus system.
Bowles and his staff have set an ambitious timetable for such a difficult course change.
The board is set to deliberate on a response plan by May, with the first recommendations taking effect in January 2009.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/10/08 5:00am)
University officials have quietly intensified their scrutiny of spending by the UNC-system Association of Student Governments, part of a broader effort to impose tighter oversight of the group.
(11/20/07 5:00am)
The UNC system will not make a final decision about tuition increases until February, but approval for UNC-Chapel Hill's proposed hikes is all but assured.
Student Body President Eve Carson said she is not planning any protest or appeal to the system's Board of Governors, which has the final say on tuition rates at the state's 16 universities.
Board members already have suggested they will look favorably on the University's request.
"We would like for them to be lower," Carson said, referring to the proposed hikes for graduate students and nonresident undergraduates.
"But it's likely that the Board of Governors will agree with the increases."
Campus trustees are seeking to raise nonresident undergraduate tuition by $1,250 - the same amount it was upped last year. They also are asking for a $400 hike for resident graduate students and an $800 hike for nonresident graduates.
When the BOG met to consider last year's increase, then-Student Body President James Allred delivered a lengthy speech protesting the burden on out-of-state undergraduates.
He called $1,250 an excessive and arbitrary amount, asking the board to settle on a lower figure.
While board was respectful of Allred's concerns, only one member of the 32-person board voted against the increase.
For the rest, a combination of campus needs and a market-based mentality toward nonresident tuition made a $1,250 hike palatable.
"I think most of the concern around North Carolina and in the newspapers and on campus is about in-state tuition," said BOG Chairman Jim Phillips, speaking in February after the board voted to approve the last increase.
"Our constitutional obligation lies to the citizens of North Carolina."
The only limit board members have placed on out-of-state tuition is that it remain below the top quartile of peer institutions. Even with another $1,250 increase, UNC-CH will remain well within that mark.
The BOG also reviews the expenditure plan for new tuition revenue on each campus, but system officials do not require much detail.
Campuses rarely have difficulty making the case for additional revenue, particularly for increased faculty funding. UNC-CH administrators have said the bulk of tuition revenue from this year's proposed increases will go to fund faculty salaries and new faculty positions.
"We have a lot of information about what's needed to get faculty salaries to the 80th percentile," said Jeff Davies, chief of staff to UNC-system President Erskine Bowles.
Campus administrators have said that UNC-CH needs almost $13 million in new revenue to reach the 80th percentile of faculty salaries at peer institutions, which is the official goal for all UNC-system schools.
And that does not even take account of the money needed to hire new faculty.
As a result, board members are unlikely to question the need for more tuition revenue.
"We understand the need for faculty salary increases," Davies said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(11/13/07 5:00am)
The UNC system's governing body gave preliminary approval Friday to a host of potentially far-reaching changes in campus security policies.
The system's post-Virginia Tech safety review recommended almost $5.5 million in new annual expenditures, with an upfront investment of $5.7 million.
Officials are now deciding how quickly they can implement those changes.
"As we work through these recommendations, we were always testing it against Virginia Tech," said UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Phillip Dubois, a member of the campus safety task force.
"Could we have prevented Virginia Tech?" Dubois said. "I came to the conclusion we probably couldn't have, but we can do some things to make it a lot less likely."
A similar report is expected in January from a government panel headed by state Attorney General Roy Cooper.
"We want to do things that are reasonable," Cooper said. "We don't want to overreact, but at the same time we want to be prepared."
Cooper added that the state's findings will closely mirror the UNC report.
The UNC task force's short-term recommendations, which could be completed by August 2008, include a new administrative position on each campus to oversee safety and security.
With a recurring cost of $1.9 million, it is by far the group's costliest suggestion.
Leslie Winner, departing UNC-system vice president for legal affairs and chairwoman of the task force, said it is also one of the most important changes campuses can make.
"No campus has a single person in charge," Winner said. "We need someone who can lead this effort on a continuous basis."
The system has done well in responding to specific events, Winner said, citing the 2004 shooting at UNC-Wilmington. But permanent positions are designed to make campuses more proactive.
The UNC task force did not suggest greatly modifying existing security systems for campus buildings, noting that 77 percent of violent crimes within dorms are committed by residents or their guests.
Instead, system officials will leave such improvements, including the use of electronic access passes and security cameras, to the discretion of each campus.
In its August report on the Virginia Tech shootings, the Virginia governor's commission noted that security cameras could have helped prevent the massacre.
The creation of a surveillance camera network covering every main entrance and access door on each campus would total more than $1.6 million, according to the UNC task force.
More than physical changes or new positions, Winner said a culture shift is ultimately required. She emphasized the connection between violent crimes and drug and alcohol abuse, noting that catastrophic events like that at Virginia Tech are exceedingly rare.
"We were looking a bit more holistically," she said. "We took a broader view of the different ways we can prevent a variety of different types of violent crime."
To create that culture shift, the task force called for more rigorous training of residence hall advisers and other campus officials.
"I think it's hopeless to get kids to stop drinking," Winner said. "But I don't think it's hopeless to get kids to stop abusing alcohol."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(11/13/07 5:00am)
Chancellor James Moeser submitted his formal tuition recommendations Monday, offering a proposal significantly more moderate than campus trustees have been advocating.
Moeser will present his plan to the Board of Trustees on Wednesday afternoon, but it is not clear whether he will get a sympathetic hearing.
His proposal - a $1,250 increase for nonresident undergraduates, an $800 increase for nonresident graduate students and a $400 increase for resident graduates - would raise substantially less revenue than trustees have been suggesting.
Karol Mason and John Ellison, the two trustee members of the campus tuition and fee advisory task force, voiced support last week for a plan that would have created almost $11.9 million in new revenue to fund University priorities.
Moeser's proposal would bring in about $5.3 million to fund faculty salaries and new academic advising programs.
"I urge moderation when considering these numbers, our competitive standing and the big picture of what is best for the University," Moeser wrote to trustees.
Student leaders said they're pleased with the chancellor's proposal, given the preferences already voiced by trustees.
"It's not our first choice, but I think this is the lowest number he could recommend that the Board of Trustees would take seriously," Student Body President Eve Carson said. "I'll be sending him a thank-you note."
Student members of the tuition task force had already made clear that they considered the upper end of the group's recommended ranges to be excessive, and Carson said the chancellor had clearly heard those concerns.
In a nod to the tension between in-state and out-of-state undergraduates caused by vastly different tuition rates, Moeser said it would be unwise to raise nonresident tuition by the $1,500 some task force members suggested.
"I do not believe the additional revenue we would gain . would be significant enough to justify the additional stress this higher amount would place on our campus culture, when our North Carolina undergraduates will pay no increase," Moeser wrote.
Resident undergraduate tuition will remain flat because of a policy enacted last year by the UNC system. State funding for the University was unusually generous this year, so the campus was not allowed to consider resident undergraduate tuition hikes.
That policy does not apply to resident graduate and professional students, however, and the tuition task force had suggested a minimum increase of $800 for both groups.
That would have amounted to a 17.3 percent hike for residents, which Moeser called "just too much."
Trustees have tried to follow a policy of increasing resident and nonresident graduate tuition by the same amount but have provided little justification for it.
Mason objected during last week's tuition task force meeting when other members suggested different rates for the two groups.
"I thought we were all on the same page about that," she said.
As a result, it is not clear whether trustees will back the chancellor's plan for different resident and nonresident increases.
There does seem to be widespread agreement about the proposed uses for the new tuition funds.
Thirty-five percent of all new revenue automatically goes toward financial aid to offset the impact of the tuition hike on needy families.
The rest will be divided among faculty salary increases, funding for new faculty positions and new advising programs.
Carson said she supports those goals but would like to see a much more detailed breakdown of where the money goes.
"I'm doing my best to make sure that the expense report is thorough," Carson said. "If we can provide more specifics, it's more satisfying to people who want to make sure the increases are benefitting their education."
The tuition task force talked relatively little about how the tuition funds will be divided, except to say that most would go toward increasing salaries and adding new faculty positions.
Last year, 28 percent of new tuition revenue went to fund salary increases, and another 28 percent went toward new hiring.
Provost Bernadette Gray-Little suggested at the last task force meeting that less than a million dollars would go to new academic advising initiatives.
"I imagine it would be the first installment of a multiyear effort to revise the advising program," she said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(10/26/07 4:00am)
Read the blog about the chancellor search.
Since its inception, UNC had to face the unavoidable tension of becoming elite without becoming elitist.
And as campus officials begin a series of public forums in the search to replace departing Chancellor James Moeser, those competing pressures are evident in the expectations state leaders have for the University's future.
(10/23/07 4:00am)
Campus officials laid out a range of potential tuition increases Monday but will wait two weeks before making a formal recommendation to the chancellor.
When the campus tuition and fee advisory task force convenes again Nov. 5, members will consider increases between $300 and $1,000 for all graduate students, and somewhere between $800 and $1,500 for nonresident undergraduates.
In keeping with a directive from UNC-system president Erskine Bowles, no increases for resident undergraduates were considered.
Task force members have no specific target for the amount of money they would like to raise. The proposals put forward Monday could yield anywhere from about $4.9 million to almost $13 million.
Provost Bernadette Gray-Little, co-chairwoman of the group, said the University can use whatever extra revenue is available to improve instructional quality.
"Any increase we're going to have is not going to meet the needs we have," she said. "But we have to decide where we're going to be and how much of that revenue is going to go toward each priority."
Faculty salaries remain at the top of that priority list.
The state legislature provided millions in extra funding this year for faculty salaries, on top of an overall 4 percent salary increase. Faculty retention stands at its highest level in years.
But UNC salaries still lag behind those of comparable schools, and task force members said the University risks losing ground without additional dollars from tuition.
Evelyne Huber, chairwoman of the Department of Political Science, said tuition revenue has been vital in improving the University's competitiveness in recent years.
"In terms of faculty morale and propensity to look elsewhere, it's like night and day," she said. "We don't want to go backwards."
Thirty-five percent of any additional revenue would go toward financial aid for needy students, with the rest broken down between faculty salaries and other priorities. Those include hiring new professors and enhancing academic advising.
Task force members said they would not decide on an exact distribution for the revenue until they determine how much money they're going to raise.
The suggested range for nonresident tuition is markedly higher than last year's task force recommendation of $500, which was overruled by trustees in favor of a $1,250 increase.
In setting a minimum of $800, task force members pointed to the rapid pace of tuition increases at UNC's peer schools. Even with aggressive nonresident hikes in recent years, the gap between the University and its peer average has actually widened.
"My thought is that we need to at least avoid falling further behind our peers," said Karol Mason, vice chairwoman of the Board of Trustees. "We have room to continue to raise out-of-state tuition to address some of our high-priority needs and still be a bargain."
Gray-Little pointed out that it would take an increase of almost $4,000 for UNC to bring its nonresident tuition in line with that of comparable public universities. By comparison, task force members said, a $1,500 rise looks modest.
Student Body President Eve Carson said the group should still be concerned about the impact on students already enrolled. They might not have planned to spend thousands more in tuition during their time at Carolina, she said.
Task force members, by and large, saw it differently.
"Surely they realize tuition is going to go up," said Julie Page, a professor in the School of Nursing.
"I don't think people expect that," Carson replied. "That's not something that's advertised."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(10/22/07 4:00am)
By 2 p.m. today, campus administrators and student officials hope to have their tuition and fee recommendations wrapped up and ready for review by the Board of Trustees.
But given how drastically the tuition landscape has changed in the past three weeks, the tuition and fee advisory task force will have to cover a lot of ground to create a consensus proposal.
(10/15/07 4:00am)
From the outset of his presidency, UNC-system President Erskine Bowles wanted a high-profile, comprehensive study to look at future challenges for higher education in North Carolina.
Now, just a few months into the initiative known as UNC Tomorrow, university leaders are grappling with just how comprehensive it has become.
In a series of public meetings held across the state, policymakers heard a litany of chronic problems - and an almost endless stream of requests for help from the university system.
"It's so big, it's hard to know where to start," said Hannah Gage, a member of the UNC-system Board of Governors. Gage has attended all 11 public meetings, held everywhere from Asheville to Elizabeth City.
"I think it will force us to look in a broader way at every critical part of our strategy."
Bowles came into office promising the state's public colleges would serve as an engine of economic transformation, and the energy level surrounding UNC Tomorrow remains high.
But after listening to a chorus of complaints about failing public schools and a stubbornly enduring achievement gap between poor and affluent children, officials are beginning to speak more directly about the limits of the University's role.
"I think we might be talking about an expansion of our core mission," said James Holshouser, the former N.C. governor who serves as an emeritus member of the BOG. "I think there's a real question of whether we have the capacity to do what we're being asked."
That comment prompted Bowles and BOG Chairman Jim Phillips to respond almost in unison.
"Me, too," they said.
In many ways, that kind of reaction is exactly what UNC Tomorrow was meant to elicit. The initiative is designed to test boundaries of what the UNC system can do to respond to problems beyond campus walls.
Already, Bowles and other UNC administrators have begun talking about a more wholistic approach to education.
One of the University's chief goals in the coming years will be to forge a "seamless" relationship with community colleges, including cooperative lobbying for state funds.
"You're going to see me next year when we go to the legislature really supporting the community college budget," Bowles said.
A much greater difficulty for UNC officials will be finding a way to improve K-12 education, which has been the most common demand during community meetings.
The university system will have to cope with a vast expansion in the number of high school graduates during the next two decades, and there are already concerns about how well-prepared those students will be for college work.
"It's astounding how much we're hearing about K-12 and the help they need," Gage said.
By the time UNC Tomorrow wraps up next semester, officials hope to define just how much help they can provide.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/12/07 4:00am)
In an effort to combat low graduation rates, administrators are considering a set of minimum entry requirements for the state's 16 public universities.
While the standards would apply to every freshman entering the UNC system, the policy is aimed at a handful of campuses that have struggled to balance rapid enrollment growth with academic success.
Eight system campuses have a six-year graduation rate below 50 percent, meaning fewer than half of entering freshman will receive a diploma within six years.
"We basically have open admissions at many of our universities," said UNC-system President Erskine Bowles.
That kind of wide-open approach is the byproduct of the UNC system's focused growth initiative, which singled out seven of the system's smaller campuses for rapid expansion.
While the program is considered a success in terms of broadening access to higher education, the downside has been an increased number of students with questionable qualifications.
"Remember what happened at A&T," Bowles said, referring to the decision to include N.C. Agricultural and Technical University in the focused-growth program. "All of those kids got in, and they all flunked out."
The six-year graduation rate at N.C. A&T stands at a meager 38 percent.
The requirements under consideration are modest and would not take effect until fall 2009.
If the standards are approved, applicants would need a grade point average of at least 2.0 and a combined SAT score of 700. By 2013, students would need a 2.5 GPA and an 800 SAT to be considered for admission to any UNC-system school.
"We want to balance broad access and success," said Charlie Nelms, chancellor at N.C. Central University. "We need students who are better prepared in terms of the rigor of the courses they've taken."
Most students who fall short of the proposed standards are already denied admission, but system officials say the existence of a firm baseline would send a message.
"Higher admissions standards, we think, are a plus for the university and a plus for students," Bowles said.
System officials hope that gradually increasing the minimum requirement will prompt students to work harder in grade school.
Poorly prepared students are at a much higher risk of dropping out, often leaving them to face college debt without a college degree.
Already, campuses use a variety of information to determine whether a student is capable of college-level work. Schools that already have minimum standards would remain largely unaffected by the proposed policy.
At UNC-Greensboro, for example, a computer model looks at grades, standardized test scores and the reputation of students' high schools to predict their GPAs as college freshmen.
"The way we've raised admissions standards over the years is by ratcheting up that predicted GPA," said Patricia Sullivan, chancellor at UNC-G.
A potential byproduct of enforcing a baseline admissions standard would be to redirect more applicants to the state's community colleges.
Already conscious of that impact, officials said they will be working to create a more seamless relationship with community colleges.
"Everything we're doing today, we're doing with the community college system," Bowles said.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/11/07 4:00am)
Cole Jones submitted a formal resignation letter Tuesday, ending a two-month leadership crisis in the UNC-system Association of Student Governments.
The embattled ASG president bowed to extensive pressure from UNC-system officials, who made it clear they did not want Jones serving as the student representative on the system Board of Governors.
That role is considered the most important duty of the ASG president, and Jones had been effectively barred from carrying it out while he appeals an Aug. 1 conviction for criminal assault.
"We all agreed that Cole's resignation was the appropriate thing to do," said Kemal Atkins, UNC-system director for academic and student affairs, referring to a Sept. 26 closed-door meeting between system administrators and student officials in which Jones said he would step down by this past Saturday.
That deadline came and went, and Jones and Atkins began another round of consultations Monday.
"He had mentioned to me that he was working on what he termed his 'exit strategy,'" Atkins said. "By that point, I felt he had talked to everyone he needed to."
Tuesday afternoon a brief letter of resignation had been turned in to ASG officers and UNC-system President Erskine Bowles.
With Jones' departure, ASG Senior Vice President Cody Grasty was immediately elevated to the presidency. He is scheduled to take his board seat Friday as part of an official swearing-in ceremony.
"I think it's important that they see a student representative sworn in at this meeting," Grasty said, referring to board members. "The association's credibility is on the line."
After the turbulence of the last few months, and amid frustrations with the ASG's perceived lack of focus, Grasty will inherit an organization primed for an overhaul.
UNC-Chapel Hill student leaders weighed in this week with a call for reform, adding the system's flagship campus to the list of constituents calling for change. UNC-Asheville and UNC-Charlotte no longer participate in the association.
"They're going to have to think back to why this organization was created," said Mike Tarrant, UNC-CH student body vice president.
Given the divisions that have often emerged within the association during the past few years, conversations between students and administrators in the coming months are likely to focus on the internal cohesion of the ASG.
For Grasty, that means luring back the campuses that have recently shunned the association.
Three campuses have either withdrawn altogether or drastically pared back their participation, and the last two meetings failed to achieve a quorum of delegates.
"Our goal by the end of the semester is to show them there is value in the association," Grasty said. "We have to create a situation where they'll want to come back."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(09/28/07 4:00am)
The University's tuition and fee advisory task force will be heading into uncharted territory when it meets for the first time this year on Monday, and task force members are still waiting for a map.
The UNC system is imposing a variable limit on tuition hikes, part of a revised policy designed to tie tuition rates more closely to state appropriations.
The policy caps campus tuition hikes for resident undergraduates, and task force members will have to center their tuition and fee discussions on meeting that limit.
Trouble is, system administrators are still calculating what this year's limit will be.
Jeff Davies, chief of staff to UNC-system President Erskine Bowles, said he's not sure the final numbers will be ready in time for the Monday meeting.
That has some task force members wondering what they'll be discussing Monday.
"This whole process is the cart before the horse," said Lauren Anderson, president of the UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate and Professional Student Federation.
If task force members begin tuition discussions without knowing the system-imposed cap, they face the possibility of having to go back and start over when the limit is finally calculated.
The reason for the delay, system officials say, is that setting the variable cap is enormously complicated.
"It's the initial year, and it's important to ensure that we've examined all the calculations carefully," Davies said. "We want to make sure we get it right."
The cap, which is set at a baseline level of 6.5 percent, is designed to shrink in years that state funding expands faster than its historic average of 9 percent.
The idea is that campuses won't need as much tuition revenue in years that the legislature is especially generous to the university system.
This year, the legislature increased system funding by an impressive 10.6 percent, meaning that there should be a tighter cap on tuition.
Unfortunately, figuring out just how tight isn't as easy as looking at overall system funding.
"It will vary from campus to campus," said Rob Nelson, UNC-system vice president for finance. "It depends on the percentage change in campus appropriations."
And because each of the system's 17 campuses draw state funding from a host of different sources, finding out how much additional money went to each school is a painstaking process.
UNC-CH Student Body Vice President Mike Tarrant said he hopes the task force can make some headway, even if final targets aren't known.
"I'm hoping we get brought up to speed," he said. "I want to ask pointed questions to make sure administrators and trustees are being held accountable."
But for now, accountability will have to wait for accounting. System officials said they hope to have the final numbers ready sometime in early October.
Assistant University Editor Kelly Giedraitis contributed reporting.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(09/27/07 4:00am)
Cole Jones announced his resignation as president of the UNC-system Association of Student Governments on Wednesday, citing a need for the association to move forward instead of focusing on past disputes.