Final budget cuts fewer than expected

UNC-system students will be facing the effects of a less-than-expected slash to the system’s budget after the N.C. General Assembly agreed on an appropriations bill Tuesday.

Although the UNC system will face budget cuts of up to $70 million dollars, the final budget cuts were less than originally planned. The House initially proposed cuts of up to $175 million while the Senate proposed cuts of $54 million.

Gov. Bev Perdue signed the appropriations bill into law Wednesday, the first time the budget has been on time in seven years.

“We took big cuts and made hard choices, but by tomorrow we will have balanced the budget with our priorities intact,” Perdue stated in a press release. “Most importantly, North Carolina will be positioned to fully recover from this global economic recession.”

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp said that the University is positioned to absorb those necessary cuts after lobbying against the ones that would have hurt students most.

“We are very appreciative of the legislators and our friends in the House,” Thorp said. “It’s been a tough year, but on the whole we are very pleased.”

The cuts will nevertheless cause UNC-system students to potentially pay $750 more in tuition.

UNC-system President Erskine Bowles stated in a release that the tuition hikes will go toward funding students who require financial aid. Each school will have the option to raise tuition up to the $750 limit.

Previously, Bowles had said earlier budget proposals would have prevented some individuals in need of aid from attending college and could have cut up to 1,700 positions — half of them faculty.

With the finalized budget, Bowles thanked the General Assembly for their “remarkable show of confidence in our public universities.”

Thorp said that now the administration must figure out how to effectively utilize the budgeted money to UNC without hurting students’ education.

Preserving the courses available now — particularly those in the College of Arts and Sciences —and ensuring students have access to the same number of seats are the top priorities.

“It will take some head-scratching, but that will be our goal,” Thorp said.

The legislature works on a two-year budgeting calendar, revisiting and, if necessary, cutting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year each summer. The $70 million in cuts comes on top of millions already cut in the 2009-11 biennial budget.

Proposals to limit in-state tuition for out-of-state academic scholarship students — such as the Morehead-Cain Scholarship and the Robertson Scholarship — were not passed.

Previous concerns with the budget regarding enrollment caps also didn’t make their way into the final budget. The House version of the budget would have capped system enrollment growth at 1 percent starting in the 2011-12 academic year.

Before the final budget was passed, UNC Student Body President Hogan Medlin said he lobbied the General Assembly to limit UNC-system budget cuts that could affect UNC students.

Medlin said lobbying the legislature helped prevent schools from offering fewer courses, laying off faculty and overall providing a lower-quality education.

“It was a culmination of bringing the reality to these legislators of exactly what will happen if they made those cuts,” Medlin said.

“It says something when a student is able to tell a story to a politician about the toll of budget cuts here.”

N.C. Sen. Tony Foriest, D-Alamance, said legislators worked to make sure the UNC system could continue its quality education.

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