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VOLUME 111, ISSUE 108 Board won’t consider cap ALTERNATE DRAFTS DELAY VOTE ON ENROLLMENT PLAN BY EMMA BURGIN ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR Debate about the UNC system’s out-of-state enrollment cap has become increasingly complex and mired in public opinion, prompt ing a top system official to sweep the issue off the board’s agenda Wednesday. Brad Wilson, chairman of the UNC-system Board of Governors, asked the board to delay its vote on a proposal to raise the nonresident cap from 18 percent to 22 percent. “We want to do it right, not fast,” he said. “(The concerns) are real and fe li jpy -wy jnHnHHHRy l DTH/BRIAN CASSEILA Employee Forum Chairman Tommy Griffin listens as Chancellor James Moeser speaks about employee concerns Wednesday during a meeting of the Chancellor's Task Force for a Better Workplace. Griffin said he thinks current salary rates discourage prospective employees from seeking jobs. WORKERS WANT BETTER I wasn t satisfied. Leaving was the only way for me to move up and do better' TOM RHYNE, FORMER UNC EMPLOYEE Editor’s note: This story is the sec ond of a three-part series examining UNC workplace issues. BY BRIAN HUDSON STAFF WRITER Very few people would turn down SIO,OOO. Former UNC employee Tom Rhyme couldn’t. Rhyne worked as a purchasing agent for the University but left in August for a job at the Division of Public Health in Raleigh. He said his salary was one of the factors that led him to seek employment elsewhere. “I’d been with the University a little over seven years,” Rhyme said. “My position had been reclassified, prob Student leaders’ talk sparks strong debate BY DORA P. GONZALEZ STAFF WRITER Tensions mounted Wednesday as student leaders from across the UNC system debated an out-of state enrollment cap proposal developed by the president of the Association of Student Governments. The plan would increase the out-of-state enrollment cap pri marily for programs that train students for jobs in low supply in North Carolina, such as teaching. ASG President Jonathan Ducote revealed the plan to the Council of Student Body- Presidents on Wednesday after sending it to the UNC-system Board of Governors on Tuesday. He submitted the proposal to WULI SPORTS ALL TIED UP The Tar Heel men end Wednesday's regular play tied with 'Pack but lose 4-3 on penalty kicks. PAGE 2 Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Zht Sa% ®ar itel cannot be taken lightly or ignored.” The request effectively tables the months-old proposal spear headed by UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser. At the board’s September meet ing, Moeser introduced a plan that would allow system schools to exempt as many as 4 percent of their academically superior non residents from the 18 percent cap. In the months since, BOG mem bers have floated at least three alter natives to the proposal. “Because the alternate drafts advanced in recent weeks differ substantively... the board after conferring with four ASG delegates. UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Matt Tepper was not one of the dele gates consulted. “I was surprised that I wasn’t contacted at all,” Tepper said, adding that he first heard of the proposal from a reporter. “Luckily, we’re not going to be hearing about it for a while.” BOG Chairman Brad Wilson said Wednesday that the enroll ment cap issue might not be dis cussed for the rest of this year, but Ducote said he acted under the impression that the board was voting on the issue Friday. “Time was of the essence when SEE ASG, PAGE 11 | www.dailytarheel.com | it seems appropriate to delay any action by the full board and to ask (the Educational Planning, Policies and Programs Committee) to engage in further review and delib eration,” Wilson wrote in a memo to board members. The planning committee meets at 1 p.m. today and is expected to strike the original plan off the lull board’s agenda. All proposals then would return to the committee. Wilson, who said he rarely receives e-mails regarding board policies, has received as many as 50 e-mails about the proposal, mostly opposing any increase in the cap. The public’s main concern is the displacement of N.C. resi dents from state schools. BOG member Leroy Lail, secre ably lower than it should be.” State employees are assigned vari ous job classifications that determine factors such as salary. Rhyme’s job at the public health division is 10 classi fications higher than it was at UNC. Other employees also have left the University in search of higher paying jobs. Of the University’s 4,361 SPA employees, only 40 percent have been at UNC for five years or more, accord ing to documents from the Office of Institutional Research. Drake Maynard, UNC senior direc tor of human resources, said the turnover rate for campus employees has reached 20 percent in the past, but between July 2002 and this July, 7 professional schools may hike tuition BOT to discuss plans Wednesday BY BRIAN HUDSON STAFF WRITER Many of UNC’s graduate and professional students could see their tuition increased by several thousand dollars next year. The Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, Social Work, Government, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Law all are proposing tuition increases to compensate for recent state budget cuts. The proposals will be discussed by the University Affairs Committee of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees during its tary of the planning committee, said the board has gotten a lot of responses from across the state. “Obviously we need to look at this some more,” he said. “There are a lot of issues, and it requires looking at public feedback.” Board member Jim Phillips said he thinks the delay is the right course of action. “With all the dif ferent ideas on the table and no reason to rush headlong into this, it makes sense to take a step back.” UNC-system President Molly Broad said Wednesday that the delay will give the board time to consider each campus’s needs through the alternate proposals. “I think the proposal that was SEE CAP, PAGE 11 the rate dropped to 14 percent. “That is a relatively low turnover rate,” he said. “You would expect to see that in an economic slump.” During a recession, turnover rates tend to decrease because the job mar ket becomes stagnant as people become less willing to change jobs. As soon as the economy returns to normal, Maynard said, UNC can expect to see many more employees leaving in search of different opportu nities. Nurses, technicians and research technologists often have a high turnover rate, he said. “If you're talking about the (people in) administration, our peer institu- SEE EMPLOYEES, PAGE 11 Wednesday meeting. If approved, they will go before the UNC-sys tem Board of Governors. All the tuition increases would be permanent except for the hike in the journalism school. Richard Cole, dean of the jour nalism school, said that although the increases in tuition would be slight, they are necessary “because of budget shortages we are suffering and the whole state is suffering.” David Neter, associate dean of the social work school, said the proposed increases would help his school function as it faces budget issues. Students in that school could see an increase of $3,500 during the next two years. “The state has cut our funding, not just at the University but at the school, too, over the last few years,” he said. “As costs continue to go up, DIVERSIONS THE BIG TIME Local writers deal with the loss of creative control as their works make it to the big screen PAGE 5 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2003 S I a* Pm mm // ML Z A 1 DTH/ASHLIE WHITE DPS officer Mike McGowan writes down the license plate number of a vehicle parked in a space with an expired meter outside Davis Library. Case may cost UNC millions in revenue State high court may hear appeal BY LYNNE SHALLCROSS STAFF WRITER A case likely to be heard by the N.C. Supreme Court could force the University to hand over more than sll million in fine revenues collected during the past eight years. The case, appealed to the Supreme Court on Oct. 21, con cerns a portion of the N.C. Constitution that requires fines and forfeitures collected by vari ous state entities to go to the pub lic school system. The plaintiffs, which include the N.C. School Boards Association and various county school boards, maintain that pay ments collected by UNC-system schools for traffic, parking and vehicle registration violations, as well as fines collected on library materials, rightfully should go to the schools. The Orange County Board of Education is not among the plain tiffs, but Mike Parker, the board’s attorney, said the final court deci sion will apply to the county. Michael Crowell, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, estimates that statewide, about $75 million per year is at stake. UNC-Chapel Hill officials esti mate that an average of $1.2 mil lion per year could be stripped from the Department of Public Safety and that about $200,000 per year could be taken from University libraries. If UNC-CH and other defen dants lose the case, the fines would be applied retroactively from three years before the case was filed, effectively collecting fines since 1995. “The impact for UNC is that we collect substantial money from parking and library fines, and we use those fines to support pro grams,” University General Counsel Leslie Strohm said. PROPOSED GRADUATE SCHOOL TUITION INCREASES UNC graduate students in professional schools might see an increase in tuition under a new campus plan that has yet to be approved by the Board of Trustees. SCHOOL CURRENT ANNUAL TUITION INCREASE PHASE-IN TIME Business $13,384 (first-year MBA) $9,000 3 years $12,384 (second-year MBA) $ 8,843 (accounting) Pharmacy $ 3,163 (doctorate) $3,500 Social work $ 3,163 $ 3,500 2 years Dentistry $ 4,764 $ 6,300 4 yews Law $ 8.152 $ 300 1 year journalism $ 6,046 $l,lOO S years SOURCE: UNIVERSITY CASHIER & DTH RESEARCH DTH/CHERNOTSKY we want to do whatever we can to keep providing services.” Michael Smith, dean of the School of Government, said the school’s proposal to increase tuition permanently by $750 over the next five years would help fund inflation in general operation expenses and proside more competitive salaries WEATHER TODAY Partly cloudy, H 60, L 27 FRIDAY Sunny, H 55, L 27 SATURDAY Mostly sunny, H 61, L 35 WHAT'S AT STAKE The N.C. Supreme Court likely will hear a case concerning a constitution al interpretation as to whether fines collected by state entities should go to public schools. THE PLAINTIFFS' ARGUMENT: The N.C. School Boards Association, along with local school boards, argue that the fines in question are not remedial because they are not being used to correct a problem directly. If THEY WIN: UNC-Chapel Hill could lose more than sll million in fine revenue 59.6 million in the Department of Public Safety and $1.6 million from the University's libraries— because the judgment would be retroactive to 1995. THE DEFENDANTS' ARGUMENT State agencies and institutions, including the UNC system, oppose the collection of some of these fines because they say they are remedial rather than punitive. IF THEY WIN UNC-Chapel Hill has set aside $2.4 million from the Department of Public Safety and $400,000 million from University libraries. If the defendants prevail, the money from DPS would go back into the department's budget and reduce the percentage of a parking price increase. SOURCE: DTH RESEARCH DTH/ELLISON For the libraries in particular, Associate University Librarian Pat Mullin said, the loss would be dif ficult to absorb. “That’d be catastrophic,” he said. “You know as well as every body else the state of the University as far as available funds. Catastrophic is a good word.” UNC-CH officials said the University has been withholding the funds at stake since December 2001, covering only two of the eight years in question. Conflicting court rulings At issue is the constitutional interpretation of a clause that states that all proceeds from penal ties, forfeitures and fines must go to the public school system. State agencies and institutions, including the UNC system, the Department of Revenue and the SEE PARKING, PAGE 11 for adjunct facility. Law school Dean Gene Nichol said his school’s proposed perma nent S3OO tuition increase also is in response to budget cuts. “We’ve had $1 million in cuts in the last three years, and so we’ve been required to SEE TUITION. PAGE 11 2*
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