Board of Trustees talk tuition

The UNC Board of Trustees spent this week’s meeting focusing on the details of the tuition increase and how to move UNC forward despite the economic downturn.

The meeting, held on today and Wednesday, concentrated on tuition but still reviewed construction plans and other purchases.

“Our goal is to stay 25 percent below all of our peers,” said UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp, regarding students’ tuition. “We are still more than $2,000 dollars below that mark and that mark will probably continue to move up during the financial crisis.”

Last fall’s tuition increase of $200 was followed by a $750 increase and was added into students’ fall tuition billing to help protect class offerings, class sizes, library services, faculty advisers and other school needs.

“If we are doing our job then the students will not feel the impact of the budget cuts in the classroom,” Thorp said. “That is part of why we thought the tuition increase was worthwhile.”

UNC’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Bruce Carney said that no less than 50 percent of the $200 tuition increase and no less than 20 percent of the $750 tuition increase must be set aside for student financial aid.

“The reason we have been so successful is that we have paid attention to recruiting the best faculties and the best students,” Carney said.

“We also have very substantial support from the state of North Carolina, so we will be working to extend that.”

Regardless of tuition, Carney explained that the goal of UNC was to stay among the best.

“The key point is we are trying to maintain our quality to be as good as the very best public school in the country, like Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia and Michigan,” Carney said.

Tuition and fees for the upcoming academic year for undergraduate in-state students at the University of Virginia are $10,836.

Also discussed among the trustees was UNC’s new online home page, which directs visitors to stories about various UNC accomplishments.

The UNC website attracts 3.2 million visitors every month, Thorp said.

Trustees also reviewed plans for the improvement of Woollen Gym and discussed the expansion of the Ronald McDonald House, a charity affiliated with UNC Hospitals.

Still, tuition remained the focus.

Working as a voice for UNC students, Student Body President Hogan Medlin expressed concerns about the heavy burden on students to pay the increase.

“Student government was not a part of the discussion (about the tuition increase), which raised some initial concerns,” Medlin said in his speech.

“We have to make sure that we are representing students and all students, not just one particular subset.”

But, Medlin told trustees, regardless of student input, UNC is a good deal.

“We are still very low on what it costs you to go here,” Medlin said.

“You can even say that our quality of education is as high or even higher than most of the universities. You can still say we are a good bargain.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.