Year after year, the UNC system's governing body has waited anxiously for the N.C. General Assembly to approve funding for new students, and every time the legislature has come through.
But over the years, the legislature has yet to come through on a request by the Board of Governors to make enrollment funding a permanent part of the state's budget.
This year, board members think they have a shot, but the Senate and House remain divided on the issue.
While nothing has officially been proposed to lawmakers, Jim Phillips, chairman of the board's Budget and Finance Committee, said during a meeting last week that he'd like to include enrollment growth in the state's continuation budget, which is reappropriated yearly.
"The legislature has been footing the bill for enrollment growth, so it's not like this is new money," said Edward Broadwell, secretary of the Budget and Finance Committee. "They have come through and come through and come through year after year after year."
Members of the N.C. Senate seem to be in line with the idea. Supporters say including growth in the continuation budget would eliminate the yearly hassle of approving it.
It also would prevent the board from having to fund growth through systemwide tuition increases. This year, the legislature alotted $64 million to fully fund enrollment growth, but in past years, the BOG has had to resort to tuition hikes.
"There'd be no reason, from my perspective, for us every year to have to debate the issue of funding growth," said Sen. Vernon Malone, D-Wake. "Obviously, as the system grows, we're going to continuously find ourselves ... having to fund that growth."
But a budget that includes non-negotiable enrollment growth funding will meet contention in the House, where representatives have said it would leave other state organizations underfunded.
