CHAPEL HILL -- UNC system leaders want to charge students less than the General Assembly has them scheduled to pay next year.
Last year, state lawmakers mandated that tuition and fees would rise $200 or 8 percent, whichever is lower, in 2010-11. The revenue from that rate increase would go to the state's general fund, a sticking point for university leaders who want it to stay on campus.
Now, university system leaders are readying an alternative that would bring in less money but let campuses keep it. Under that plan, half of all revenue raised through tuition increases would be used for need-based financial aid, and the rest of the money would be spent on critical campus needs such as programs to improve graduation and retention rates.
University leaders fear losing money for financial aid if all the increase goes into the state's general fund.
"Not only do we lose that money, but half of it was going to need-based aid," UNC President Erskine Bowles said Thursday during a meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors. "Some would say we should raise tuition and plow the money into the university. But this is a tough time for families."
In considering tuition increases each year, campus leaders weigh the price of quality against the state's constitutional mandate to keep college costs low. This year, the task is complicated by the recession and the legislature's funneling the revenue into the general fund.
Under the current law, the average tuition-and-fee increase for in-state students next year would be $180. Under the plan being pushed by the UNC system, those same in-state students would see a $131 increase, or 5.2 percent, on average, said Rob Nelson, the UNC system's vice president for finance.
"Part of our approach is to lessen the burden for residents," he said.
Students like the plan
Greg Doucette, the sole student on the UNC system's governing board, said Thursday that student leaders support the alternate tuition plan. He pointed to the more than 20,000 petition signatures the UNC system's student government association has collected from students across the state endorsing the plan.
"That's like having four UNC Ashevilles signing the same document," he said.
Under the UNC system plan, undergraduates from North Carolina attending UNC-Chapel Hill would see their tuition and fees rise $265.98 to $5,535.64. N.C. State University's rate would rise $164.30, to $5,323.30. N.C. Central University's rate would rise $183.21 to $3,924.42.
Those costs don't include room, board, books and other college expenses.
