SPECIAL TUITION ISSUE
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www.dailytarheel.com
Tuition Philosophy, Procedure Focus of Ist Meeting
By Lizzie Breyer
University Editor
Members of the Task Force on Tuition
met for the first time Tuesday to- hash out
procedural details and debate the merits
of some justifications for a tuition increase.
Provost Robert Shelton, the commit
tee co-chairman with Student Body
President Justin Young, began the meet
ing by recapping the mission of the com
mittee, which is charged with providing
recommendations to the UNC Board of
Trustees before itsjan. 24 meeting.
The committee was formed at the
suggestion of Chancellor James Moeser
at the Nov. 15 BOT meeting, where the
Schedule Leaves
Students Out
Of Tuition Loop
For the first time since the early 19705, an issue of The
Daily Tar Heel has been published when classes are
not in session.
The cause for today’s break from tradition: administra
tors’ decision to schedule the first in a series of tuition com
mittee meetings during exam week.
When the UNC Board of Trustees
called for the committee nearly a
month ago, Student Body President
Justin Young specifically requested that
meetings not be held during exams or
Winter Break. But lo and behold, the
committee’s first meeting was scheduled
during exams -and another is planned
for early January before classes resume.
Although Young said he was not
upset with the scheduling because the
committee’s three student members
KATIE HUNTER
EDITOR
were able to attend Tuesday’s meeting, the fact remains that
- intentionally or not - the behind-the-scenes way in which
the committee is set to address tuition will have the effect of
blindsiding students when they return from Winter Break.
While most students were holed up studying for exams
Tuesday, administrators, trustees, faculty members and students
gathered on the third floor of South Building for the first meet
ing of the 2001-02 Task Force on Tuition. The task force plans
by mid-January to make several recommendations about cam
pus-initiated tuition increases to the Board of Trustees, which is
scheduled to act on tuition at itsjan. 24 meeting.
This short time frame will severely limit public scrutiny
of whatever proposal eventually is put forth.
If an administration that already has been criticized for
holding the views of students in low regard is looking to
redeem its image, the recent scheduling decisions do not help.
It has been more than three months since Chancellor James
Moeser first announced his intent to pursue a campus-based
tuition increase this year. If the need to increase tuition is so
dire that it cannot be put off a year to ensure a well-thought-out
policy is adopted, why was putting the process in motion not
given higher priority? Why has the first meeting of a commit
tee that is expected to offer viable input on tuition been put off
until just six weeks before the BOT is slated to act?
One can only assume from the way in which the tuition
issues have been handled so far that - in the minds of
administrators - the urgency to raise tuition outweighs the
need to follow a process that is transparent, thoughtful and
responsive to student concerns.
DTH Editor Katie Hunter can be reached at
krhunter@email.unc.edu.
TPAC Delays Night Parking Fee Discussion Until January
■ Nov. 14: At a TPAC meeting, Linda Carl suggests night parking
fees as a revenue source
■ Nov. 28: Students prptest the possible fee for night parking by
parking a car in the Fit and attending the TPAC meeting
■ Nov. 30: UNC's Department of Public Safety conducts an Internet
survey to gauge opinions on the availability of night parking
■ Dec S: TPAC conducts an educational meeting to examine the
survey results but says they will not directly factor into (he
committee's decision
■ Dec 10: TPAC decides not to discuss night parking until after
Winter Break, accommodating students’ request not to discuss s
the issue during exam week §
■ Dec 12: TPAC will examine the financial needs of the g
public safety department at its meeting |
■ January 2002: TPAC will make its preliminary recommendations %
on night parking, ft 'lowed by open forums on the issue |
■ February 2002: TPAC writ submit its final recommendation |
on night parking to the BOT §
■ March 28, 2002: The BOT will vote on TPAC’s recommendation \
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
Thomas Jefferson
first formal discussion of a possible
tuition increase took place.
Shelton said the group’s work will be
complicated by the need to work during
Winter Break. “We have a very tight time
line,” he said. “While many of us in one
way or another will be working through
the holidays, not all of us work here.”
But student members expressed their
desire to work under the time con
straints, offering to come back to cam
pus to meet over break. “We, at least, are
committed to being here,” Young said.
The committee ultimately set its meeting
dates for Jan. 4, Jan. 9 andjan. 15.
Shelton distributed information to the
group for members to review during the
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Provost Robert Shelton (left) and Student Body President Justin Young discuss issues such as whether a tuition increase is the
best revenue source for raising faculty salaries at the first meeting of the 2001 -02 Task Force on Tuition on Tuesday.
BOG, Chancellors Discuss Tuition
By Elyse Ashburn
Staff Writer
The UNC-system Board of Governors Budget
and Finance Committee wrapped up a round of
discussions Tuesday, gauging UNC-system chan
cellors’ intent to raise tuition on their campuses.
Chancellors from East Carolina University,
N.C. School of the Arts, UNC-Pembroke and
Western Carolina University presented their
tuition plans during the teleconference meeting.
Next year the board will vote on a plan to
raise in-state tuition systemwide by 4.8 percent
- an increase of sll2 per student at UNC-
Chapel Hill. Out-of-state tuition will be raised
the same dollar amount as each school’s calcu
lated in state increase. The increase is the sys
tem’s yearly response to inflation.
Any campus-initiated tuition increases would
By Brook Corwin
Staff Writer
The Transportation and Parking Advisory
Committee will not discuss the possibility of
charging a fee for night parking until January,
accommodating student requests that the issue
be tabled until next semester.
The committee will spend its meeting today
looking at the specific financial needs of the
University’s transportation department. A fee
for parking on campus after 5 p.m. has been
suggested by committee members as a possible
source of funding for these needs.
Linda Carl, the committee’s chairwoman, said
the decision not to discuss night parking until
next month was made to ensure committee mem
bers would be more informed before making a
decision on the issue. “We changed the agenda to
make it easier for the committee to understand all
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Volume 109, Issue 130
break, data he said he hoped would help
compensate for the shortened time frame.
Members of the committee said they
wanted guiding principles for their work,
and Shelton asked committee members to
e-mail him ideas by Dec. 28. “The first
thing we need to tackle is statements of
principle,” said committee member Tim
Burnett. “If you don’t do that, all the num
bers in the world don’t matter - you’ve got
to have something to measure against."
After procedural issues were resolved,
most of the remaining discussion
revolved around whether funding facul
ty salaries through a tuition increase
would result in a conflict between stu
dents and faculty. “My sense is that stu
be in addition to the BOG’s proposed increase.
UNC-system President Molly Broad advised
chancellors and committee members to remem
ber the tuition guidelines set forth in the N. C.
Constitution. “(It) charges officials to keep tuition
and fees as low as is practicable," she said.
Broad said consideration of campus-initiated
tuition increases is particularly complicated this
year. “The issues are very challenging this year,
and there are strong arguments on both sides.”
The WCU Board of Trustees voted last week to
increase tuition by SIOO, and the other three chan
cellors who participated in the meeting stated their
intention to propose increases, citing a need to
raise faculty salaries as their primary motivation.
UNC-Pembroke Chancellor Allen Meadors
said keeping tuition low is a priority but that his
campus needs to generate funds to increase fac
ulty salaries. “We certainly want to keep tuition
the issues before coming to a decision on any of
them," Carl said. “We’re going to look at why we
need to raise money and for what.”
Committee member Derek Poarch, director
of UNC’s Department for Public Safety, said
accommodating student schedules was one fac
tor in the committee’s decision. “Students are
going to be in exams, and we wanted to make
sure students were available before we had dis
cussions on the topic," Poarch said.
Student Body Vice President Rudy
Kleysteuber said the delay will allow students to
take part in the decision process. “A lot of stu
dents, including members of student govern
ment, were adamant about not discussing the
night parking issue during exams."
Students have expressed concern about Unit
ed involvement in parking issues since the com
mittee made its Oct. 25 decision to eliminate on
campus student parking without student input.
dents and their parents pay to be taught,
and that is the core reason to pay
tuition,” said committee member Russell
Carter. “There needs to be a resolution
made philosophically - higher wages are
a fact, competitive wages are a fact, and
we need tuition to make it work.”
The issue of a faculty-student divide
was raised by Faculty Chairwoman Sue
Estroff at the Nov. 15 BOT meeting,
when she said a tuition increase should
not imply that money is going from stu
dent wallets into faculty pockets.
Carter said he is concerned that fac
ulty members have not come forward to
help explain salary needs to students. “It
sounds like it should be exactly what stu
dents want to hear, that the money is
going to improve their teaching, and fac
ulty are saying tell them something else.”
But student committee member
Rebekah Burford said she thinks the
solution to a rift between faculty and stu
dents is to educate the student body.
“(Students) hear about a tuition
increase but don’t know what it’s about
or where it’s going,” she said. “If they
did know, they would be a lot more
receptive - the issue we’re facing here is
that students are ill-informed, and that’s
the first step we need to take."
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
as low as possible for students, but at the same
time our costs go up,” he said. N. C. School of
the Arts Chancellor Wade Hobgood said he
intends to propose a $1,500 tuition hike. East
Carolina University Chancellor William Muse
said tuition in the UNC system has traditional
ly been low compared to that of other public
university systems, noting that maintaining low
tuition rates has become impracticable.
“Having recendy come from out of state, it is
apparent to me that higher education is a real
bargain in North Carolina."
Muse said the university community needs
to realize raising tuition is a valid method of
promoting campus growth. “It may not be pop
ular, but I don’t see any other solution.”
The State & National Editor can be reached
atstntdesk@unc.edu.
Carl said a preliminary recommendation on
night parking will be made next month, fol
lowed by open hearings on the issue. She said a
final recommendation must be made by the
beginning of February so the Board of Trustees
can vote on the issue at its March 28 meeting.
Committee members said they are looking
for a way to fund several projects, including fare
free busing, the expansion of the Park-and-Ride
lot and the construction of anew PR lot.
Committee member Emily Williamson, a grad
uate student in the School of Government, said
she hopes discussing these financial needs will
enable the committee's three student representa
tives to find alternative sources of funding. “We’re
asking to see what the expenses are so we can find
ways to fill them other then night parking."
The University Editor can be reached at
udesk@unc.edu.
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Policy About
Tuition May
Be in Flux
The state constitution
mandates low tuition, but
some say increases are
needed to stay competitive.
By Alex Kaplun
State & National Editor
“The Genera) Assembly shall pro
vide that the benefits of The University
of North Carolina and other public
institutions of higher education, as far as
practicable, be extended to the people
of the State free of expense.”
Those words - written into the state
constitution 30 years ago - have been
used in the past by both student ieaders
and University administrators to voice
opposition to tuition increases.
But now, as officials consider the pos
sibility of anew campus-based tuition
increase, University leaders say they
must balance that constitutional man
date with an effort to stay competitive
and look at tuition in anew light.
While no specific tuition increase pro
posal has been made, University admin
istrators have suggested that a tuition
increase should be used as an additional
revenue stream for the University.
“North Carolina has a tradition of
great generosity towards higher educa
tion,” UNC-Chapel Hill Provost Robert
Shelton said Tuesday after the first
meeting of a task force that will make
tuition recommendations to the UNC
CH Board of Trustees.
“Nevertheless, the financial equation
is changing in that we can’t ask the tax
payers to fully fund higher education.
... The burden falls on us.”
Former UNC-system President Bill
Friday said he has seen a change in atti
tude toward tuition, which he said can be
largely attributed to a decrease in state
funding for the system. Even though the
dollar amount of the UNC system’s bud
get has increased steadily during the last
15 years, the percent share of the state
budget has fallen from more than 17 per
cent to less than 13 percent
Asa result legislators and University
administrators have turned to tuition as a
complementary source of funding, Friday
said. “What (the General Assembly)
decided is to let the Universitv ask for
tuition increases, and of course they are
going to grant them every time,” he said.
He added that when the UNC system
formed in 1971, tuition was only a small
part of the University's funding picture. “It
was perceived as another University
receipt, but it was not perceived as a pri
mary source of income,” Friday said.
UNC-svstem Association of Student
Governments President Andrew Payne
also said system administrators have set
tled for revenue from tuition to compen
sate for losses in state funding. “Instead
of going down to the legislature and
demanding funding, we’ve taken the
easy way out by placing the burden on
students and their families,” Payne said.
“We have given up our responsibility to
put pressure on legislators for funding.”
He added that both University
administrators and legislators are ignor
ing the constitutional mandate. “The
ultimate question is who should pay,”
Payne said. “If the state and legislators
say the constitution is no longer applic
able, well then, we’ll go from there.”
But Shelton said Tuesday that while
the state constitution mandates that
tuition be kept low, there is also pressure
on the University to remain competitive.
“In the current era, we are an institu
tion that is expected to compete at not
only a state and national level but also
internationally,” Shelton said.
“The people of this state demand that
this be a world-class institution.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.