Board members unanimously approved a two-year $4.87 billion budget with little discussion after BOG Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Addison Bell moved for a vote. The budget now will head to Gov. Mike Easley and then to the N.C. General Assembly for consideration.
The budget requests funding for some things that have been contentious among the BOG, system universities and the legislature.
It calls for $71 million in faculty salary increases for next school year and $149.7 million the following year, representing a 6 percent increase in salaries each year.
At the board's October meeting, members mandated that individual campuses could not use campus-based tuition increases for merit-based faculty salary increases -- drawing the ire of the UNC-system Faculty Assembly.
But board members retorted that it is the responsibility of the General Assembly to provide for faculty salary increases, not that of individual campuses.
"Given the 2002 North Carolina General Assembly's lack of providing any money -- any money -- for salary increases, it is increasingly difficult for us to attract and retain the best faculty," said Molly Broad, president of the UNC system. "And we ignore this truth at our own peril. ... If we fail to add salary increases, we are going to place at risk the quality of our academic offerings."
The board also requested $46.6 million to fund enrollment growth in the 2003-04 school year and $84.9 million in the 2004-05 school year.
Last year, BOG members doubted the legislature would provide the system with $66 million for enrollment growth in light of the state's fiscal crisis. The board approved an 8 percent tuition increase for in-state students and a 12 percent increase for out-of-state students to fund about half that amount.
The UNC system enrolled 176,967 students this year -- an increase of about 7,200 students. "This increase exceeded campus targets and budgeted enrollment by 1,300 students," Broad said.
The system's budget also requests an additional $10.3 million for financial aid for the 2003-04 school year and $13.3 million for the 2004-05 school year.
Broad expressed confidence that the General Assembly would pass the budget in its entirety next session. "It sends to the governor, the General Assembly and the people of North Carolina the true needs of the University," Broad said. "It is a large request, and we are realistic in our view that it can be fully funded."
The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
