UNC-system President Tom Ross said last week that he wants to end tuition hikes for in-state students this year.
After 10 years of tuition increases, including a much protested 13.5-percent increase last year, a freeze in tuition hikes is a pleasant way to start off the year.
However, this July, the N.C. General Assembly approved a two-year budget that requires a 12.3 percent increase in tuition for out-of-state students at UNC-Chapel Hill and three other schools in the system.
It is unfortunate that out-of-state students specifically will be hit with higher prices, yet again. These students have seen tuition go up consistently, so it is reasonable to cautiously expect that this promise may not last for long.
It would be disappointing to see a year with no tuition hikes followed by a year with an unreasonably high spike in tuition in order to compensate.
In a perfect world, this freeze in tuition wouldn’t lead to massive increases in years to come, or cuts to funding for other important and productive programs on campus.
The tuition hikes will make the school seem less appealing to out-of-state students who help make the UNC experience rewarding.
Balancing the budget for a large public university such as ours is an unenviable task, especially with seemingly endless cuts to the funding of the UNC system.
President Ross should follow through with his promise to put the brakes on tuition hikes in a way that protects students in the future.
Preventing a tuition hike this year would be would be the ideal situation, as long as it is not at the expense of out of state students or programs that make UNC stand out and attract excellent students.
