In a perfect world, the UNC System schools and the North Carolina General Assembly have plenty of money when they are making their budget. Unfortunately, when they don’t, they resort to using our money. Make no mistake, tuition and fees will increase this year, but Student Government is working to address the ludicrously rising rates that students are somehow expected to pay.
A commonly heard argument for tuition increases is that the University has the lowest level of tuition and fees compared to our peer institutions. I’m here to say comparisons based on relative prices are irrelevant to students’ lives. Financial aid is simply not keeping pace despite the University’s appreciated best efforts. I’ve had students tell me their single parent household is already struggling to make payments, even with students working a job themselves. Saying tuition here is $1,000 lower than another out-of-state school is a slap in the face when an increase of $500 will force some students to drop out of school.
Under the current system, suggestions for increases in tuition and fees precede through a University committee, the chancellor, the Board of Trustees, the UNC Board of Governors and the General Assembly. This rather circuitous route understandably takes a while to wind its way to completion, but the long process currently penalizes the individual institutions and students by giving precious little time to the initial committees to hear requests and reach a decision. Student Government had to rush its 2012-2013 Tuition Recommendation Act to the floor for debate all the way back in mid-September for precisely these reasons. Classes began Aug. 17 for the fall semester, so Student Government and the University committees had barely a month to somehow make wise decisions on how to spend what will be millions of dollars in student tuition and fees.
The upcoming Student Government UNC T&F Process Act under consideration is looking to halt these pernicious runaway costs by allowing increased student input. The first few clauses of the bill make a simple call for the UNC General Administration to tighten the timeline on their end to provide space for more careful consideration and increased student transparency and input. Subsequent resolutions demand student voices be given more weight and implores University administration to consider more fully the economic cost and burden that will be passed on to students and their families. Perhaps most interesting is an appeal for a Board of Governor/Student “increase contract” to give entering freshmen a general idea of how much they can expect tuition and fees to increase during their four-year University career. While this type of prediction would be difficult, even a general idea would simultaneously allow students to plan ahead and require the Board of Governors to keep costs at or below a certain level.
Student Government and the student body as a whole are claiming the justified right to determine how millions of dollars of their money will be used. The UNC T&F Process Act is merely the beginning of a growing demand that the General Assembly not balance the budget on the backs of the students.
