Budget constraints and shifting leadership make it unclear whether the N.C. General Assembly will commit to funding continually the UNC system's enrollment growth.
The UNC-system Board of Governors passed Jan. 10 a freeze on campus-initiated and systemwide tuition increases for the 2003-04 academic year under the premise that the legislature would include funding for enrollment growth in its continuation budget.
If legislators make such a move, enrollment growth would be funded automatically by the state instead of being considered year to year.
In March 2002, N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and N.C. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, sent a letter to the BOG vowing that they would work to move enrollment growth to the General Assembly's continuation budget.
But Amy Fulk, Basnight's press secretary, said it is too early to predict whether the proposal will come to fruition. Both Black and Basnight still are rallying for the proposal, but Black's term as speaker has ended, Fulk said.
The speaker for the upcoming term, to be elected Jan. 29, will appoint an entirely new committee of budget writers, she said. All of the former writers in both the House and the Senate either have retired or been de-seated. "A lot is going to depend on who these people are that get appointed to these positions," Fulk said.
Black is campaigning for another term, but Republicans have control of the House by a two-vote margin, endangering the re-election of the Democratic incumbent. If Black is re-elected, it would heighten the chances of the proposal passing, but Fulk said she thinks the party of the new speaker is irrelevant.
But the Republican nominee for House speaker, House Minority Leader Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, said he would oppose permanently funding enrollment growth if the issue arose during the next session: "I don't think that's something the General Assembly would do."
Officials estimate that enrollment growth at all N.C. institutions -- including public schools, community colleges and the UNC system -- will cost $225 million to $245 million during the the 2003-04 academic year. Expansion at the system campuses is expected to constitute about $46.6 million of the total cost, officials say. At the same time enrollment costs increase, the state is facing a shortfall of about $2 billion for the upcoming budget session.
