Gov. Bev Perdue said recently that public universities should seek more private funding to offset the impending huge cuts to state appropriations.
On its face, her plan makes sense. The state is going to have to make substantial cuts in order to balance this year’s budget. One way UNC could deal with those cuts is to seek funding from other sources like private donors.
However, state appropriations largely fund employee salaries and buildings, while donors prefer to give most of their money to research, scholarships and special initiatives. In the words of UNC-system Board of Governor’s member John Davis, “They don’t like to give money so that people can be paid a salary.”
So when Perdue says public schools should focus on getting more money from private sources, she essentially suggests fundamentally altering the relationship between the state and the public university system.
It would certainly signal a paradigm shift in the state’s understood commitment to higher education.
Of course the UNC-system schools would try to raise money for salaries if they had to, but that would be an uphill battle. Schools would almost certainly have to raise tuition substantially to cover the costs.
The N.C. Constitution says that “as far as practicable” public higher education should be free. The state has long since abandoned the “free” part; but UNC-Chapel Hill consistently ranks high for its academic value.
We get it. With a state budget hole of $3.5 billion, funding public universities isn’t as “practicable” as it used to be.
But before lawmakers throw around the idea of asking schools to adopt a private funding model, they should consider the broader implications of their statements.
