“I’m looking specifically at the last four years. The first year we had budget cuts. The first year is an exception,” Gage said. “The second year, you hope it’s an exception. By the time you arrive at the third and the fourth year, it’s a trend.”
At the presidential panel, moderated by former Gov. Jim Holshouser Jr., at least two past system presidents urged Ross to not allow for substantial tuition increases for in-state undergraduates.
Dick Spangler, who led the system from 1987 to 1996, suggested 10 ways Ross could avoid raising tuition, including ending sabbaticals for professors, transferring all registered nursing programs to community colleges and raising out-of-state tuition.
“Otherwise we’re going to do something morally wrong,” Spangler told Ross and a room full of past and present system administrators. “We’re going to keep students out of our schools.”
John Sanders, a former Board of Governors member who worked alongside Friday during his term as president, said the system’s current struggle to maintain affordability without hurting the quality of education is comparable to what the University faced during the Great Depression.
But Sanders said there are also other factors that are greatly affecting the UNC system’s goal to maintain low-tuition costs.
“I don’t think the legislature was out to whack the University in particular,” he said about the N.C. General Assembly in the 1930s.
“I think there is a kind of vindictiveness or maybe a glee about the legislature from slicing the University today. They don’t feel that the state is suffering or is going to suffer as much from the loss of the University’s activities and services.”
In last year’s November election, Republicans gained control of both the House and the Senate for the first time since 1898 — a political shift that many were worried could have detrimental impacts on education in the state.
“I don’t think the people who are in control have the kind of personal investment in the University that would convince them on the basis of their own knowledge that the University is worth saving,” Sanders said.
Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, who serves on the Senate committee on higher education, said the constitutional mandate to maintain low tuition costs has not been upheld.
“We haven’t done that,” Nesbitt said. “And the tuition has gone up, up, up.”
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“I’m beginning to hear national conversations about whether a college education is even worth what it costs now.”
In January of last year, the state faced about a $3.7 billion budget deficit, which later decreased to a $2.4 billion budget deficit.
“We had to take action to balance the budget,” said Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake. “So throughout the state government there were significant cutbacks and that extended to higher education.”
“Is that a permanent thing? We certainly hope not.”
Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, who has served in the Senate since 1997, said she’s afraid the legislature is ignoring what needs to be a priority.
“We need to make sure we have access through funding,” Kinnaird said. “What I’m afraid of is that we’re turning our back on that.”
“I heard yesterday that the city of Rockford, Ill. is removing streetlights,” she said. “When we come down to something like that — that we have to remove streetlights — our priorities are completely skewed.”
As universities across the state draw up their proposals for tuition increases and administrators continue to question how high is too high, Kinnaird said those involved in the process need to stay true to the historical tradition of affordable education.
“We need to sound the alarm, because we’ve got to keep our University great,” she said.
Contact the State & National Editor at state@dailytarheel.com.
