The Facts:
At its Friday meeting, the Board of Governors approved a $200 tuition increase for the next academic year. The N.C. Constitution dictates that a college education must be made as free as practicable.
Our Opinion:
The General Assembly is wrong to push for a large tuition increase during such a massive recession, it goes against the essence of the state’s mission.
The Board of Governors of the UNC System addressed many pressing, and controversial, issues at its Friday meeting.
The action packed meeting, which revealed UNC System President Erskine Bowles’ intention to leave his post at the end of the year, will have long-term impacts on the N.C. State community and most college students in North Carolina.
In response to the 2008 Free Expression Tunnel graffiti incident, the board approved a broad sweeping hate crimes policy. Additionally, it accepted the contentious Talley renovation fee for consideration by the General Assembly.
One of the most dramatic changes, though, and the one that will affect University students next year is the 5.2-percent tuition increase, which was initiated by the General Assembly during the summer budget crunch.
The state’s finances are a concern for everyone in North Carolina and students would be naïve to think they won’t have to bear some of the burden of a truly unprecedented recession, but it doesn’t free the legislature from its constitutional responsibility to education.
The N.C. Constitution requires that a university education should be made as free as practicable — its one of the actions that has set North Carolina apart and propelled it past other states in the southeast. The UNC System is an asset for North Carolinians, but it is being jeopardized by the actions of the General Assembly.
The $200 tuition increase — a 5.2-percent raise — represents a significant burden for thousands of students at NCSU and other public institutions in the state. The legislators downtown have a difficult task before them, but it is literally unconstitutional for them to swell tuition and threaten the ability of students to affordably attend the University.
Another downside of the increase is that the funds will not be returned to the universities that raise them. Unlike Campus Initiated Tuition Increases, the usual tuition increasing method, the $35 million raised throughout the system will be sent straight to the General Assembly fund.
As if matters aren’t bad enough, the General Assembly had already cut the University’s funding by 10 percent this year. The increase on top of the already dramatic cut is a slap in the face and establishes a bad precedent where legislators steal from students, the leaders of the future, to cover the state’s debts.
Student Government and the Association of Student Governments, which represents the entire UNC System, took a great step in starting a statewide petition against the increase. They must continue do more, lobbying the General Assembly to reconsider the increase.
Likewise, the lawmakers must see the inequity in the situation and reevaluate their decision to place an additional burden on students and their families.
