Task force sees first specifics

With just one meeting left on the agenda, the group that will advise Chancellor James Moeser on the University's tuition policy is on the brink of making its recommendation.

The Tuition Advisory Task Force took major steps toward its goal during its meeting Wednesday, the fourth thus far.

Task force members discussed specific numbers for the first time and mulled three broad tuition proposals ranging from a $150 across-the-board hike to a $1,000 hike levied on out-of-state students and $300 for their in-state counterparts.

The plans were drawn up earlier this week by Provost Robert Shelton and Student Body President Seth Dearmin, co-chairmen of the task force.

"It's time to frame the discussion quantitatively," Shelton said at the beginning of the meeting.

He said the proposals were not endorsed by the group's leaders but rather were meant to encourage discourse.

But task force members shied away from favoring any specific number, instead focusing on where revenue from a tuition hike should go.

Members spent a large part of the meeting debating how the money should be distributed to University needs.

Shelton encouraged this approach, because the numerical details of a tuition proposal probably will be revised before they go through the stages of approval.

"Because whatever comes out of this group I can guarantee will not be put into effect," he said.

"I don't say this in any critical sort of way. There are too many layers of governance. - They bring their own perspective."

During the task force's final meeting, set for Oct. 10, the group will finalize plans for a recommendation to Moeser.

From there, the proposal is set to go before the University Board of Trustees in November and on to the UNC-system Board of Governors in early 2006.

Although the task force has largely avoided solidifying any plans, members overwhelmingly supported putting tuition revenue toward increasing the minimum teaching assistant stipend.

Most agreed that the money should raise the minimum teaching assistant salary $1,000, to $7,000.

Increasing the campus's minimum TA salary would require almost $1.1 million in tuition revenue, according to information presented to the task force at the meeting.

The University must put resources to improving graduate students' benefits, task force members say, or it risks losing top students to other institutions.

Most graduate students are financially independent, members say, and they rely on assistantship positions to ease tuition costs.

Faculty members on the task force said raising stipends would be popular among their peers.

Dearmin told task force members that most undergraduates would support raising stipends, because they realize how beneficial TAs are in the classroom.

He said he would not oppose reasonable tuition increases - as long as they went to real needs on campus.

"By golly, they gotta be priorities and things that we need, not just things we want," he said.

Dearmin will hold a forum tonight to relay his position to the student body and to gauge their concerns. The forum will be at 8 p.m. tonight in Murphy 116.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.