Higher tuition waived for few

Enrollment of out-of-state students could rise at UNC-system schools next year, despite fierce opposition in 2003 to changing the 18 percent nonresident enrollment cap.

A provision in the state budget will allow out-of-state students receiving full scholarships to be considered in-state students by the UNC system. Each school’s board of trustees must decide whether to implement the policy.

Although the cap on out-of-state enrollment will remain the same, UNC-Chapel Hill vice provost for admissions and enrollment management Jerry Lucido said full scholarship students would not count toward the 18 percent.

And because the budget provision calls for the universities to maintain the number of native North Carolinians enrolled, nonresident full scholarship students could be considered a third group of students, increasing overall enrollment growth, he added.

Still, the provision is vague enough to be interpreted by individual campuses, he said. “The actual impact will be determined campus to campus.”

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said the policy will improve the educational atmosphere at UNC-CH and aid scholarship foundations recognized by the universities.

The Morehead Foundation, for example, will pay less to the University for out-of-state students, freeing up more scholarship funds.

“We think this is a very reasonable and a good way of taking care of the problems of the Morehead Foundation,” Rand said.

He also pointed out that the wording requires there to be no fiscal impact on the participating universities.

But with fewer tuition dollars coming in, UNC-CH likely would have to admit more full-paying nonresidents or secure more enrollment funding from the legislature, Lucido said.

“We’re probably going to grow a little faster than we thought we would,” he said.

Still, the UNC-CH Board of Trustees has yet to vote on the policy and could examine it at its September meeting.

Although adding more non-resident students could be seen as a boon for UNC-CH and the state's economy, school officials still have to grapple with the funding question, Lucido said.

“It’s not just about (making up) the revenue that comes in,” he said. “We want to move forward with the academic plan.”

Despite the system’s opposition to the plan this summer, Brad Wilson, chairman of the UNC-system Board of Governors, said the policy’s flexibility is a good thing. He also noted that the letter of the law protects North Carolinians.

“The bottom line is the (N.C.) General Assembly has spoken on the subject,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned the matter is over.”

But Wilson said he was surprised the issue received so little debate. “As intense as the last discussion was when we talked about it, I was surprised that there was as little public interest in that aspect.”

The N.C. School Boards Association adamantly opposed increasing the 18 percent cap on nonresident enrollment when it came up in 2003 but did not pipe up about the issue this summer.

Leanne Winner, the association’s director of governmental relations, said this year the special provision was within the budget, making it less of a priority.

“In all honesty, our portion of the budget bill was so bad that we had to spend all our energy getting the K-12 budget where it needed to be,” she said.

Even with the stipulation that the number of in-state students not be reduced, the school board association would oppose it, she added.

Priority on new seats in classes should go to in-state students, she said.

“We just feel like the first obligation of the state and our tax dollars should be to North Carolina students.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.