The budget was the topic of conversation as Tom Ross, president of the UNC system, fielded questions from Student Senators Wednesday night.
Ross, who took the job in January, spoke for about an hour with Chancellor Randy Woodson chiming in occasionally. He did not deny that the system is under duress, but said he would not have taken the job if he did not believe it could be fixed.
“I want to hear from you,” Ross said. “You have felt [budget reductions] more this year, perhaps, than anytime before in your careers. What turns people around the most is when I tell them [students’] stories.”
Ross said it is important to make a case to the general assembly, which over the past five years has handed down a total of $1.2 billion in public funding.
Both Ross and Woodson agreed that an increase in private fundraising would help alleviate the public funding shortfall. Ross said public institutions need alumni to step in. However, the misconception among alumni, according to Ross, is public schools receive all they money they need from the state.
“Alumni think ‘you are a public school, and you don’t need us to donate to you.’ That’s not the case,” Ross said.
Ross said students should mobilize to garner funds from alumni.
Harrison Do, a senior in human biology and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences senator, asked Ross what he planned to do with the system over the next ten years to make it sustainable and fiscally sound.
Ross said the system has been “losing excellence.” The economy is not in a recession, but more of an overall restructuring, which will result in less consumption, according to Ross. Therefore, schools in the system must learn how to keep the excellence it has and get the excellence back that it lost, all while doing more with less.
One example of “lost excellence” that Ross spoke on was the loss of high-quality faculty. Private schools are recruiting professors from public schools since they have the ability to pay more, and generally have more funds at their disposal, according to Ross.
Ross said he went to a private school: Davidson College.
“So I know [how private schools work],” Ross said.
Ross was also the president of Davidson College.
Woodson stressed the importance of keeping N.C . State a “good buy” while also maintaining academic integrity. He said there are no public schools in the top 20 as rated by publications such as the Wall Street Journal. As of fifteen years ago, however, there were five, Woodson said.
According to recruiters, though, 20 of the top 25 schools in the nation are public, Woodson said. With 220,000 students in the UNC system, public schools have the ability to reach a larger base of potential students, most of whom have less money, according to Woodson.
Ross said tuition will “probably” be raised. The University is currently at the bottom of the bottom quartile of tuition. Ross said tuition will most likely rise higher when compared with other schools in the UNC system, but will remain in the bottom quartile.
With 60 percent of students in the system on some sort of need-based financial aid, Ross said “some of [the tuition increase] should go to financial aid.”
