It’s getting more expensive to be a Tar Heel.
Based on the recommendation of its Board of Trustees, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has decided to increase tuition and add new fees for the upcoming year. The plan includes a $200 tuition increase for in-state students and $950 increase for out-of-state students enrolled at UNC.
Richard Williams, chair of the UNC Board of Trustees, said the tuition hike will be used mostly for “retention and recruitment of outstanding faculty.” Trustees will also introduce a mandatory athletics fee to relieve the strain on the athletics budget.
The UNC tuition task force, which includes students, faculty, administrators and trustees, came back with a recommendation to increase tuition in order to retain the quality of education at the University.
“Our university has been challenged to keep its best faculty because other universities are willing to pay more for some of our best professors,” Williams said.
Williams added that UNC tuition has always been low relative to peer public universities.
Tar Heels seem more concerned about the mandatory athletics fee than they do about tuition increases in general.
“Since I haven’t been to a single game yet, I don't think it’s right that I should be paying almost $250 per year in athletics fees before I graduate.” said Danny Kumar, a freshman at UNC.
The plan, devised by Chair of the Faculty Judith Wegner, involves the transfer of profit from Tar Heel merchandise to merit scholarship funds. Previously, this money was allocated to the athletics department. The financial loss of the athletics department will be compensated with an increase in the mandatory athletics fee, which is currently $98. Trustees want to raise it first by $50 for the upcoming year and $100 for 2006-2007.
“We had a lot of discussions and several board members thought this was the best idea,” Williams said.
Officials are confident that the new plan will solve financial problems in the athletics department without compromising education or merit scholarships.
“There will ultimately be a pool of nearly $4 million for merit scholarships,” Williams said.
Tuition increases are becoming a trend at UNC, following a hike of $1,500 last year—a trend that could spread to other universities.
“You'll probably see more public universities who are increasing in-state and out-state fees. As a result of economic problems, a number of states have not been able to support the universities as much as they were accustomed to.” Williams said.
He gave the examples of the universities in Texas, Michigan and especially in California—at Los Angeles and Berkeley—that had to significantly increase their tuitions because of a lack of state support.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Duke follows a similar pattern,” Williams said.
John Burness, Duke’s senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, said the trend would not influence Duke’s policy.
“The principle driver of a decision [such as a tuition increase] relates to our goals for the University and how we are going to fund them.” Burness said, “Tuition increase has been a trend since the economy started a downturn around 2000.
“The issue of state support has nothing to do with Duke, since we do not rely on state support,” Burness said.
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