The facts: The UNC System Board of Governors announced a $414 million cut from the state budget to the UNC school system last week. N.C . State’s funding was cut by 15 percent.
Our opinion: Though N.C . State received a lower cut than UNC-CH , our University also receives less financial funding from private sectors and alumni. If the University wants to lessen the blow from this cut, we need our alumni to help us out.
The 2011-2012 budget proposed by the N.C . General Assembly reduced state funds for the UNC System by $414 million where the new budget law said that reductions must not be made across the board, hence there will be a variation in each university’s cuts.
N.C . State received a more significant decrease than most of the other universities based on the Board of Governors’ six criterion, one of which was whether a university received significant other funding sources. Though N.C . State does receive some funding from private benefactors, the majority of its money comes from the state and from students’ tuition. If N.C . State wishes to avoid the pain of this latest cut, the university should seek more private funding, specifically from alumni.
UNC-Chapel Hill received the largest cut with 18 percent; however, UNC-CH has a huge endowment — it receives significantly more private funding than N.C . State. The UNC Health Care system has transferred $20 million to the UNC System. The funding will go to all the schools in the UNC System, but a larger amount will likely go to UNC-CH , due to its partnership with that university.
The implications of the budget cut will likely be as feared. Tuition will probably continue to increase, about 1,000 class sections will be terminated and financial aid will definitely be negatively affected. Though no student desires another increase in tuition and less financial aid, the loss in class sections and seats will likely bring the heaviest blow, potentially inhibiting soon-to-be-graduating seniors from leaving the University on time.
To make up for the cut of class sections, the University could prioritize seniors in class sign-up by trying not to cut classes seniors likely take; however, this spread is likely too diverse to accurately factor in. A better solution would be for the University to pursue their alumni and ask why they aren’t helping out their University as much as they should. Alumni donations are clearly helping soften the blow for UNC-CH . N.C . State alumni should do what they can to help the school that made them successful stay on its feet.
