McCrory proposes tuition increases for out-of-staters

Georgia native Audrey Horne is afraid that she might never again walk into the dusty geology building or cheer among a sea of fervid Carolina blue fans at the Smith Center after this year.

Horne, a sophomore geochemistry major, said she initially received enough financial aid to attend UNC-CH.

“They gave me a sizable institutional grant, and it wasn’t that bad for the cost,” she said.

But she said for several reasons her financial aid package has substantially decreased — which might force her to attend a school in Georgia next year.

Horne said she is concerned about the tuition increases and the encouragement to allocate scholarship money away from out-of-state students in Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget proposal, released last week.

The proposal recommends a 12.3 percent tuition increase, beyond the amount set by the UNC system’s Board of Governors, for out-of-state students at six system universities — including UNC-CH.

The proposal might also decrease the number of out-of-state Robertson and Morehead-Cain scholars.

Across the system, roughly 450 nonresident students are on full academic scholarships, said Joni Worthington, spokeswoman for the system.

According to state law, out-of-state students with full scholarships are considered in-state for tuition purposes.

But McCrory’s budget would consider these students out-of-state for tuition.

Full scholarship programs such as the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program attract some of the world’s most competitive students, including Student Body President-elect Christy Lambden, said James Ellsmoor, a freshman Morehead scholar, also from the United Kingdom.

“It brings a lot of people, like campus leaders, that wouldn’t have come to the school without one of those scholarships,” he said.

In 2012, the program accepted 25 in-state, 16 out-of-state and nine international students.

Horne is not a full scholarship student, but she said she is concerned in general about the amount of aid available for successful students.

“People who are not doing that well get a lot more aid than me,” she said. “It frustrates me that they don’t take into account how well you’re doing or not.”

Jennifer Willis, director of state relations at UNC-CH, said she is disappointed by the governor’s proposal to consider full-scholarship, nonresident students as out-of-state.

“Ensuring that this language is not a part of either the Senate or House budget proposal is a priority of ours,” Willis said in an email.

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.