This day 218 years ago, North Carolina laid the cornerstone of public education as we know it. From humble beginnings, UNC embarked on a mission of educating students with state funds, always with the understanding that it would make returns on the investment. This big idea spread from the small, soon-to-be college town of Chapel Hill to schools nationwide.
In spite of funding cuts that give little cause for celebration, the University gathers today to recognize the past and a tradition of state support that is fading into memory. And while it’s important to honor this history, it should not blind officials to today’s harsh fiscal realities as it did in 2010-11.
The Board of Governors spent a considerable amount of time and effort that year devising a four-year tuition plan. The plan maintained the 6.5 percent cap on tuition hikes, even with the state cutting 15.6 percent, or $414 million, from the system this year. That cap will provide little more than false hope that schools can soften the blow of cuts without changing course.
The plan had the good intention of aiming to continue making any tuition increases gradual, a worthy goal in a state whose 10.4 percent unemployment rate ranks seventh in the nation.
But with no end in sight to the state’s financial distress, it has also proved unrealistic. Save for a provision that allows for increases above the cap if no other revenue options exist, the four-year tuition plan has been rendered almost irrelevant.
At his inauguration Thursday, the system’s new president, Thomas Ross, vowed to carry on the legacy and fill the “crater-sized footprints of his predecessors.” But what the system needs is someone who will grasp the magnitude of today’s challenges and not be beholden to the past.
Raising tuition above the 6.5 percent cap must be strongly considered, but not without a search for alternative revenue and an in-depth explanation to students. As painful and hard to swallow as it might be, it must be considered to maintain quality by retaining the faculty the system is hemorrhaging.
And it will be necessary to preserve the need-based aid that has been lacking at some schools and has forced more students to drop out.
At UNC, there appears to be nowhere else to turn. Without coming near the “semi-private” tuition models of other systems, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney said an increase above the cap will be necessary to retain faculty and make up the $20 million hole in funding that UNC Healthcare filled this year but cannot refill the next. That will require a strong case to students.
