But the call Hannah Gage got a few months back from the head of UNC-Wilmington's marine science program was odd because it was a request for money for UNC-Chapel Hill.

Huh?

The Chapel Hill campus needed money for a marine research vessel, and Dan Baden, the UNCW official, felt he could help, recalled Gage, a UNC system Board of Governors member who lives in Wilmington.

"That was just a significant change from how it was five to eight years ago," Gage said. "It's a different culture now."

Relations among UNC system campuses have not always been so collegial. But university system officials say the ability of campuses to work together rather than compete is more important now than ever as money for higher education becomes increasingly tight. It is the central theme of a new policy in the works that will change the way public universities are granted new academic programs.

In essence, it will ask individual campuses to check their competitive instincts at the door and look broadly at the state's needs.

"From a selfish standpoint, N.C. State could propose, ad infinitum, new areas we could work in," NCSU Chancellor James Oblinger said at a recent UNC system meeting on the issue.

Now, he said, the thought process is: "How do we shore up high quality programs on behalf of the state?"

The policy emerged from the UNC Tomorrow planning exercise by UNC system President Erskine Bowles, who wants universities to be more responsive to North Carolina's future economic needs.

A campus hoping to add, for example, a new master's degree may find there are too many similar master's programs across the state already. Or perhaps its proposal is too costly, but a joint venture with professors at another public university is a better option.

A recent three-page draft of the policy uses the word "collaboration" six times. It says that planning processes should be "nimble, efficient and responsive" but also proposes a new layer of vetting. A committee of representatives from each of the system's 16 university campuses would consider every proposed program, determine whether it fills a statewide or regional need, and ensure the right campuses or faculty members are involved.

John Bardo, chancellor at Western Carolina University, asked recently whether that new layer of scrutiny would slow the process too much.

"I'm not clear this will produce nimble results," he said. "When [employers] want something, they want it now."

The policy does include a "fast-track" mechanism to approve some programs quickly. It will also compare every proposed degree program with other existing programs, evaluate the need for it, look out for duplication, track employment opportunities for graduates and assess whether the program can be done better if other campuses add to it. Currently, academic program proposals don't receive quite the same broad examination.

"I look at it like it's an editing mechanism that lets us turn things down if they don't make sense," Gage said.

Since the UNC system was formed in 1972, about 600 new programs have been created, said Alan Mabe, vice president for academic planning. But programs are assessed every two years, and about 500 programs have been discontinued, Mabe added.

UNC officials say the payoff will be in efficiencies gained, money saved and good will created.

"I think the people who fund us will be appreciative," said Fred Mills, a UNC system board member from Raleigh. "Unnecessary duplication is unnecessary."

Historically, campuses have competed for state money, and the Chapel Hill campus has ruffled its share of feathers. Just a few years back, it tried, unsuccessfully, to convince legislators to give it and N.C. State the autonomy to set tuition rates. Critics said that sort of autonomy could crack the foundation of the 16-campus system.

And decades ago, UNC-CH supporters unsuccessfully tried to fight off a proposed medical school at East Carolina University. Now, those two institutions are working together on a medical expansion effort that university leaders point to as an example of improvement already under way.

"It's good for every campus, big or little," Roger Perry, chairman of UNC-CH's board of trustees, said of the new policy. "I think it will make the whole system leaner, meaner and more accountable."