CHAPEL HILL -- Students at UNC-Chapel Hill will continue to pay far less for their educations than peers at most of the campus's competitors under a tuition plan approved Thursday. And that, some say, is a problem.
In considering tuition hikes each year, campus leaders weigh the price of quality against the state's historic mandate to keep college costs low. This year, the task was complicated by the recession and a legislative mandate that will take tuition revenue away from public university campuses.
Under the UNC-CH plan trustees approved Thursday, in-state undergraduate students would pay nearly $300 more next year for a total of $5,921.42 in tuition and fees. Out-of-state undergrads would pay an increase of about $1,223 for a total of $24,736.42. Those rates don't include room, board, books and other expenses.
Now, some campus leaders say the increase, which is moderate when compared to UNC-CH's peers in other states, won't produce enough revenue to compete with those same institutions for the best faculty.
"We remain a great bargain," said Bruce Carney, UNC-CH's interim provost. "That is admirable. But it is a challenge to accomplish what we need to do."
Luring faculty
Faculty recruitment and retention has long been a high priority at UNC-CH, and a portion of tuition increase revenue is always used for those purposes. But there's far less money available this year.
Meanwhile, the university's competitors have raised tuition at far higher rates and are reaping the financial benefits.
UNC-CH students pay $5,625 in tuition and fees this year. By comparison, the University of California, Berkeley, often considered the nation's top public institution, charges $8,938, and a 32 percent increase is scheduled for next fall (Story, Page 17A). Virginia charges $9,872 this year.
Many of these institutions have spent the past year raiding the UNC-CH faculty, said Carney, previously interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. While in that role, he fended off 12 attempts to hire away faculty by giving raises or other resources to those professors; he lost six others to better-paying jobs elsewhere.
Across campus, the university spent about $1 million last year to retain faculty members offered higher-paying jobs.
Until UNC-CH adds considerably to its faculty salary pool, it will lose talent, said John Ellison, a trustee from Greensboro. Eventually, its rank and reputation will suffer, he said. "This university is not going to maintain our academic standing in the world if we continue down this path," Ellison said. "We are paying less and less and less to our faculty than our peers."
UNC-CH and the UNC system are largely handcuffed by the General Assembly, which earlier this year mandated that tuition for in-state students in 2010-11 rise $200 or 8 percent, whichever is less. Revenue from that tuition hike would go to the state's General Fund rather than to the campus, as is customary.
That's $5 million to the state that UNC-CH would otherwise have used for faculty pay, financial aid and other needs.
UNC-CH and UNC system officials say they'll lobby legislators to change that law.
But the state is already running a deficit of $95 million four months into the fiscal year, said state Rep. Ray Rapp, a House education budget writer.
