TO THE EDITOR:
As a graduate student and lifelong resident of North Carolina, I applaud The Daily Tar Heel for its coverage of the graduate student residency process. While this may seem like a minor and exceedingly complex issue for the rest of the University community, it has the potential to jeopardize the University’s ability to recruit and retain top graduate students.
In my four years in Chapel Hill, I have seen an important administrative mechanism intended to keep out-of-state undergraduate and professional students from securing in-state tuition rates become an increasing burden of time and money for teaching assistants and their sponsoring departments. As TAs, graduate students work for the state. In accordance with N.C. General Assembly guidelines, they should be considered in-state residents after living and working in North Carolina for one year.
The graduate residency process does not save the University or the state money. By denying in-state status to an increasing number of TAs, it may seem like the University has generated more revenue from out-of-state graduate tuition. In actuality, the University is merely charging its own departments more for TAs.
To add further frustration, administrators responsible for residency decisions do not have to tell applicants why they were denied in-state residency, and appeals hearings can often be quite intrusive affairs. Lost in the unclear guidelines and the unnecessary hours that the process demands from administrators and students alike is a central point: TAs are state employees, not opportunists who are trying to “game” the system.
Jonathan Hancock
Graduate Student
History