CHAPEL HILL -- UNC system President Tom Ross said Thursday that he will recommend tuition and fee increases of less than 10 percent for next year, below what many campuses are seeking as they cope with state budget cuts.
Ross will offer the UNC Board of Governors specific recommendations in the next few weeks. But he said he hopes his plan will represent an average systemwide increase that is below the 9.3 percent average increase enacted last year. He doesn't want any campus to raise its price tag above 10 percent, he said.
The UNC president's plan would generate less than $50 million in revenue, he said. After setting aside financial aid money for needy students, the revenue would make up less than 15 percent of last year's state budget reduction.
But something must be done to preserve educational excellence, Ross said.
"It's about a balance," he said. "It is about a balance between low tuition and high quality, maintaining excellence."
UNC campuses have proposed undergraduate tuition and fee increases ranging from 4.3 percent at UNC Pembroke to 13.5 percent at UNC Asheville. The proposed undergraduate tuition and fee increases are 11.4 percent at UNC-Chapel Hill, 10.4 percent at N.C. State University and 8.5 percent at N.C. Central University.
A group of students from UNC-CH walked to the UNC board meeting Thursday to protest the proposed increases. The students displayed signs that began, "I care about tuition because ..." with handwritten phrases such as "North Carolina promised," "I don't want to graduate with DEBT" and "Tough times test our values." The boardroom was packed, so most students had to watch the presentation on TVs in the lobby.
The board could accept or reject Ross' recommendation, and a brief discussion Thursday revealed a wide variety of viewpoints among board members. A vote on 2012-13 tuition is expected in February.
Funding cuts
Tuition always prompts heated debate among leaders of the public university system in North Carolina, where the state constitution requires that higher education be provided free to the people, "as far as practicable."
Three UNC chancellors made their case for higher-than-usual tuition increases to mitigate the effects of last year's state budget cut, which Ross called the largest in UNC history.
But the budget losses extend over the past four years, resulting in a net permanent budget reduction of $482 million for the system, after taking into account new funding for additional students. Per-student state funding has dropped nearly 13 percent from 2007-2008 to 2011-2012, according to UNC data.
During that time, class sizes have swelled, and course offerings have dropped. Since last year, the UNC system is teaching an additional 2,300 students with 1,100 fewer faculty and 1,250 fewer staff members.
At NCCU, for example, 350 students were unable to get required math classes. NCSU has 400 fewer seats in entry biology courses.
NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson said his campus has experienced permanent cuts of $127 million, along with $100 million in one-time reductions during the past five years. NCSU's total budget in 2010-2011 was $1.189 billion.
During the past decade, Woodson said, the undergraduate population has grown by nearly one-third without an appreciable increase in permanent faculty. Part-time, adjunct faculty are handling a larger share of the teaching duty.
At a research university such as NCSU, Woodson said, "we're losing the capacity to be the world-class researchers and innovators that this state has demanded of us."
UNC Asheville Chancellor Anne Ponder said the small liberal arts university has been hit hard by budget cuts. If UNCA has a major roof leak, she said, it results in the loss of a job. The campus has slashed elective courses so that none is offered that's not a graduation requirement. Student leaders at UNCA support a proposed 13.5 percent tuition and fee increase, she said.
"I want you to resist and reject the stereotype that our faculty are slackers and don't work very hard," Ponder told the board. "I want you to know that if our faculty were not stepping up in this emergency, the quality of what we offer would be seriously and significantly compromised."
But students said the double-digit, multiyear increases campuses proposed would be too burdensome for families in the current sluggish economy.
"Student debt levels are going up," said Spencer Kuzmier, a UNC-CH senior from Greensboro.
Looking to Raleigh
Greg Randolph, a UNC-CH senior from Raleigh, wants to see a stronger push back to the state legislature.
"This needs to be a statewide campaign to protect public education," he said. "I don't think we're seeing that campaign, and I don't think we really, as a state, are grappling with the gravity of the situation."
Ross said the university must find a new way forward. It will be a four-pronged approach, he said: save money, bring in more private donations, maintain taxpayer support as the main source of funding, and ask students to help through their tuition dollars.
"I believe deeply in the University of North Carolina," he said. "It needs to be great if North Carolina is going to be great, and we think some tuition increase is going to be necessary to maintain that quality."
Board members will leave this week's meetings with thick notebooks of tuition data and detailed analyses of the impact of budget cuts. They also have a letter signed by at least 20 former board members, asking them to reject the tuition proposals.
The petition also has the support of former UNC presidents Bill Friday and C.D. Spangler Jr.
Next month's vote promises to be a marathon session, with more student protesters.
"Tuition is always difficult, and it should be," Chairwoman Hannah Gage said. "It should be bumpy and contentious and emotional. The day it's not is probably the day we should all resign."
