Tuition talks lack specifics

The Tuition Advisory Task Force came as close as it has to discussing specific tuition proposals Wednesday.

But, a week after their first meeting, the group still is miles away from hammering out its final proposal to the chancellor, leaders say.

Task force members were briefed on a price-sensitivity study conducted last year, which establishes market limits on campus-based tuition increases.

The study offered insights to the task force about how high tuition could be raised before prospective students are discouraged from attending UNC.

The University has room to increase in-state tuition for undergraduates to the level of its competitors without consequence, according to the study.

But in light of the Board of Trustees' tuition philosophy - which dictates that UNC in-state tuition be set at 25 percent of peer institutions' tuitions - it is not likely that drastic hikes would pass.

"By definition I don't think we can be out of the range of our competitive set," Trustee Karol Mason, a member of the task force, said via telephone during the meeting.

But Provost Robert Shelton, co-chairman of the task force, said it is important for members of the task force to be well-versed in all areas of the matter of tuition.

"I don't think we should go in with any preconceived notions on about what we should or should not be doing," he said after the meeting.

It's important to keep the trustees' philosophy in mind, he said, but the task force also must be aware of all the factors in tuition discussions.

The task force will conduct more research and discussions before drafting a specific tuition proposal, which is set to go before the Board of Trustees in November.

"I think what we'll find is in the next couple weeks we'll get real quantitative," Shelton said.

In the mean time, the task force has been heavily focused on determining which areas of campus most need the revenue from a possible increase.

Last week, the task force focused on the graduate students' resources, which many members said have declined in recent years. They revisited the issue again Wednesday.

Some members clarified earlier statements about how faculty would respond to tuition revenue going toward graduate students rather than faculty salary raises.

The two interests are not mutually exclusive, and many favor both, some task force members said.

"It's not that we don't want an emphasis on faculty salaries," said task force member Steven Matson, chairman of the biology department. "It's that we don't want faculty salaries increased at the expense of graduate salaries."

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.