TO THE EDITOR:
Kenan-Flagler’s serious consideration to implement a $2,000 fee for incoming business administration majors is both discouraging and unsurprising.
It is unsurprising in that the decision perfectly follows market rationality. Administrators roughly calculate how much extra money the school can demand from students and how many students can pay this amount.
This logic ignores the fact that such a fee increase will further prohibit less wealthy students from earning a degree in one the university's top ranked undergraduate departments.
Instead of living up to the university’s mission to provide a rigorous and accessible public education, Kenan-Flagler has opted to continue their impulse toward self-segregation, disconnecting their programs and facilities from large swaths of the student population and perpetuating the economic advantage of wealthier undergraduates. UNC students not enrolled in business degrees cannot even access the McColl Building after certain hours.
Kenan-Flagler does not need more money to operate. The school remains inaccessible to thousands of students but the bathrooms have the latest Dyson airblade hand dryers.
Furthermore, as noted in Monday’s editorial, this is a fee increase, not a tuition increase, meaning this financial barrier would not even be used for academic purposes. The result of the increase is not a better education but instead higher revenue.
It is fitting, albeit disappointing, that a business school would act more as a corporation than an institution dedicated to critical knowledge and the betterment of communities.
Andrew Clark
