The full Board of Trustees passed a bill Friday to increase tuition $100 for in-state students and $200 for out-of-state students, according to Tom Stafford, vice chancellor of Student Affairs.
The bill, which also proposed a $69 fee increase — excluding the indebtedness and transit fee increases — will now move to the General Administration for the Board of Governors to consider at their meeting in January or February, Stafford said.
According to Stafford, if the bill is passed, it will benefit many students.
“The money will be used for more financial aid and the enhancement of the academic environment,” he said.
D. McQueen Campbell, chair for the Board of Trustees, said while students may not immediately appreciate an increase, it would help improve the University and allow for it to stay competitive.
“We’re continually losing faculty to other [universities],” Campbell said, and if the bill passes, he said it would support faculty salaries as well as financial aid.
The Pack Promise ensures financial aid for students whose family’s incomes fall at or below 150 percent of the poverty line and Campbell said the bill would provide more money for the Promise.
The bill passed on a 12-1 vote, with Student Body President Bobby Mills providing the dissenting vote as he did in Thursday’s Student and Campus Affairs Committee meeting, Mills said.
One of the reasons Mills, a junior in political science and economics, said he was against the bill was because he thought the Pack Promise deserved more money than would it be allocated in the increase.
According to Campbell, the UNC System’s Board of Governors met with university chancellors to set up a “need-based” formula to see how much of a tuition increase each university could handle.
N.C. State was allowed maximum increase of 6.5 percent, but Campbell said they did not want to ask for that much to reduce any strain on students. While three other schools received a 6.5-percent cap as well, four universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill, were restricted from any in-state undergraduate increases.
Stafford said ultimately Provost Larry Nielsen will decide how the money from the increases is allocated.
The rest of the meeting included presentations from Chancellor James Oblinger and Mills, along with discussions of property items and leases as well, but Campbell and Stafford said a presentation from the Athletics Department before the meeting left a great impact.
According to Stafford, Athletics Director Lee Fowler gave information about his department, with assistance from student athletes, and then showed a video honoring Kay Yow.
The video showed Yow receiving the Jimmy Valvano ESPY Award for Perseverance at the ESPN awards held in July, and Stafford and Campbell both said it was very emotional.
“I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room,” Stafford said.
