VOLUME 111, ISSUE 136
TUITION ON THE TABLE
INPUT
Decision
process
criticized
BY JENNIFER IMMEL
SENIOR WRITER
A proposed tuition increase that
undoubtedly will affect many aspects
of University life will be finalized
today by UNC’s governing board.
The decision marks a break from
tradition as a select group of trustees
and high-level administrators single
handedly crafted a proposal that
likely will increase resident tuition
by S3OO and nonresident by $1,500
next year.
According to members of the
campus community and documents
obtained by The Daily Tar Heel,
board members have met routinely
behind closed doors since the board’s
last meeting Nov. 20. Trustees and
administrators have met in person
almost half a dozen times in the past
two months, but only one of those
meetings included a student and
none involved a faculty member.
This has led many to believe that
concerns and recommendations
from faculty, students and— most
importantly the Tuition Advisory
Task Force have been disregarded.
For the past three years the task
force has been charged with crafting
all campus-based tuition proposals.
This year’s proposal called for a
three-year S9OO tuition increase for
all students.
Of the $22.2 million that would
have been generated from that
increase, the lion’s share would have
gone to need-based financial aid and
faculty salaries. “The Tuition Task
SEE INPUT, PAGE 6
SCHOLARSHIPS
Private funds could benefit
BY BROOK R. CORWIN
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
For decades they’ve remained
apart.
Athletic scholarships, hundreds
of which are offered each year, have
been subsidized solely from private
funds raised by the Department of
Athletics’ Educational Foundation.
Meanwhile the Office of
Scholarships and Student Aid has
awarded millions annually in
mostly need-based aid, using
money allocated from general uni
versity hinds, some of which were
raised through tuition increases.
Those two offices could be
linked today. If the UNC Board of
Trustees votes to approve the
tuition increase proposal it is now
Student elections ballot
to feature 8 SBP hopefuls
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lunior Bret Barden turns in petitions
Tuesday for SBP candidate Lily West
to BOE Chairwoman Melissa Anderson.
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Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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The University’s governing body expects to vote
today on a tuition increase proposal that would
alter significantly not just the how much stu
dents pay for their studies, but also how the
money is used and the philosophy by which such increas
es are approached.
The process started in typical fashion, with a tuition task
force recommending a S9OO three-year increase for all stu
dents. But last fall the Board of Trustees rejected that plan
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Nonresident tuition increases being protested at a teach-in (top left). Board of Trustees members Tim Burnett and Chairman Richard
Williams (top right). Chancellor lames Moeser (bottom left). Potential students who could be affected by potential increases (bottom right).
considering, almost $1 million of
the sls million in revenue the
increase will generate will go
toward merit and talent-based
scholarships. That includes funds
for the private Morehead and
Robertson Scholars foundations.
The funds won’t add to the
number of scholarships awarded.
But they will “hold harmless” the
rising costs of paying for those
scholarships, negating the impact
of a $1,500 one-year tuition
increase for nonresident students.
The hold-harmless strategy has
long been used at UNC to meet
100 percent of need-based aid. All
campus-based tuition increases
have set aside 40 percent of rev
enue to offset the addedfinancial
BY ARMAN TOLENTINO
STAFF WRITER
Only three of the 18 students
who declared their intentions to
run for a major student office failed
to submit their petitions before
Tuesday afternoon’s deadline.
Micheal Jones and Brian
Norton decided to drop out of the
STUDENTftA
ELECTIONS JHf
Anderson, chairwoman of the
Board of Elections.
Alexander Smith, a prospective
Carolina Athletic Association
president candidate, said he will
run as a write-in candidate.
“I got off to a late start and was
n’t able to collect the 800 signa
tures on time,” Smith said. “I’m
disappointed, but at the same time
I’m excited about (getting to run as
SEE SIGNATURES, PAGE 6
INSIDE
BALANCING ACT
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successful finish in weekend meet PAGE 7
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DTH RLE PHOTO/JUSTIN SMITH
DTH FILE PHOTO/ELSPETH CALLAHAN
need increases create. This year’s
proposed increase is no exception.
Now, for the first time, athletic
and privately funded scholarships
are thrown into the equation.
“It’s the first time we’ve broad
ened the concept of hold harmless
to include merit and talent-based
scholarships,” said Shirley Ort,
UNC’s director of scholarships
and student aid.
Connecting those scholarships
to tuition funds sets an uneasy
precedent. A Faculty Council reso
lution condemning the tuition pro
posal uses its strongest language to
express “grave concern” over break
ing from UNC’s practice of keeping
SEE SCHOLARSHIPS, PAGE 6
Bush stresses election themes
Address highlights economy, terror ; marriage
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. - President
Bush, wrapping the themes of his re-elec
tion campaign in his State of the Union
address, asserted Hiesday night that the
United States is strengthening its economy
and successfully combatting terrorism. “We
have not come all this way, through tragedy
and trial and war, only to falter and leave
our work unfinished,” he said.
In a stay-the-course appeal to a joint ses
sion of Congress, Bush said the nation
faced important challenges and choices.
He said it was tempting but wrong to
think the danger of terrorist attacks had
passed even though it has been more than
two years since the country was attacked.
“We have come through recession and
terrorist attack and corporate scandals and
the uncertainties of war,” the president told
lawmakers at the opening of a campaign
year.
“And because you acted to stimulate our
economy with tax relief, this economy is
strong and growing stronger.”
student body
president
race, said
Melissa
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and rapidly crafted a proposal that focuses the increase on
nonresidents. The result was a one-year increase to raise
tuition S3OO for residents and $1,500 for nonresidents.
Also inherent to the proposal is anew market-based
tuition philosophy that seeks to put UNC in the 75th per
centile of its peers for nonresident tuition —a move that
would require a $3,600 increase in the next few years.
The board will vote on the proposal at 4 p.m. in the
Carolina Inn’s Hill Ballroom Central.
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ENROLLMENT
Enrollment hangs in balance
BY EMILY STEEL
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Christine Andrews said she fell
in love with UNC the minute she
stepped onto campus.
The University’s architecture,
academic programs and atmos
phere caught the eye of the high
school senior from Orlando, Fla.
who now is waiting to hear the
verdict of her application.
But Andrews, whose father is a
doctor, said her enrollment at
UNC is contingent upon winning
a merit-based scholarship.
Her family can’t afford out-of
state tuition rates inflated by the
proposed increases but most like
ly won’t be eligible for need-based
aid, she said. “It is just a financial
Democrats were quick to take issue, not
ing that 2.3 million jobs have been lost
under Bush, that deficits are soaring and
casualties are climbing in Iraq. Democrats
sat silently through most of Bush’s 54-
minute speech while Republicans applaud
ed repeatedly.
Bush’s speech was designed to cast him
as the commander in chief, grappling with
the nation’s problems and above politics
while Democratic rivals for his office race
around the campaign trail trading charges.
With a SSOO billion budget deficit limit
ing his options, Bush offered a handful of
modest initiatives: a $23 million pilot plan
to encourage student drug testing in public
schools and a S3OO million training and
placement program to help newly released
prisoners find jobs.
He urged major league sports leagues
and athletes to end the use of performance
enhancing drugs to set an example for
young people. Their use by even a minority
of elite athletes sets a dangerous example
for the millions of young Americans,
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Local man travels to Bollywood in attempt
to subvert stereotypes of Indians PAGE 4
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2004
DTH FILE PHOTO
DTH/GILLIAN BOLSOVER
reality,” she said. “There is just not
enough money there at the time
being to allow me to go there.”
In many ways, members of the
University’s governing board hold
Andrews’ future and the make up
of UNC’s out-of-state student
body in their hands today as they
finalize tuition increases.
Board of Thistees members are
looking to push out-of-state
tuition rates into the 75th per
centile among public peer institu
tions with a $1,500 one-year hike
and a possible $3,600 increase
over several years.
Chancellor James Moeser, who
supports such a hike, told the
Faculty Council on Friday that he
cautioned trustees not to be hasty
COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE/ERIC DRAPER
President Bush gave the State of the Union
Address before Congress Tuesday night.
encouraging them to take dangerous risks
with their health and safety, Bush said. He
also proposed doubling federal spending
on programs to promote sexual abstinence
among teenagers.
Touching on a politically sensitive issue,
he said he would support a constitutional
amendment banning same-sex marriages if
the courts struck down a law saying mar
riage should be between a man and
woman.
“America this evening is a nation called
to great responsibilities,” the president said.
“And we are rising to meet them.”
WEATHER
TODAY Partly cloudy, H 43, L 26
THURSDAY Sunny, H 51, L 24
FRIDAY Sunny, H 46, L 22
PHILOSOPHY
Attitude
shift seen
in plan
BY JOHN FRANK
STAFF WRITER
When talking tuition, it’s the num
bers that grab students’ attention.
On the table is a S3OO increase
with the option of two more S3OO
installments for in-state students and
a possible $3,600 hike with an initial
$1,500 for out-of-state students.
The numbers are contusing. Even
University officials “did the math
wrong,” leading them to change the
proposal from a $6,000 out-of-state
hike to the current possibility of a
$3,600 long-term increase.
Often overlooked in the confusion
is a fundamental change in the phi
losophy used to set tuition.
The philosophy shift is important
in the tuition debate, Provost Robert
Shelton argues, because it sets the
direction and boundaries for future
discussions and increases.
On paper, the new philosophy is
simple: In-state tuition should
remain affordable and accessible,
while out-of-state tuition can be
value- and market-driven.
Yet ingrained in the discussion is
a controversial issue that has divid
ed the University community.
On one side, proponents argue that
increasing tuition revenue is the only
way UNC can get money to retain top
faculty and decrease class size.
“Campus-based tuition is one way
for us to identify critical components
that are required to make this
University the best that it can be for
the people of North Carolina and the
SEE PHILOSOPHY, PAGE 6
in their approach. He continued,
“Nor would I recommend to the
board that they embark on any
more than a one-year increase for
nonresident tuition until we have a
chance to conduct a thorough
study of the long-term effects.”
While officials have crunched
many numbers when crafting this
proposal, no conclusive study has
been conducted to predict its
impact on out-of-state enrollment.
Once trustees make a decision
today, officials likely will start such
a study immediately. A higher edu
cation consulting firm would target
potential UNC students in the
study, which could cost up to
SEE ENROLLMENT, PAGE 6
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