The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees on Thursday narrowly voted to raise in-state undergraduate tuition by 3 percent, or $211, for next academic year—a complete about-face from the day before, when it appeared a board committee had killed the plan.
On Wednesday, the board’s budget committee debated the proposal presented by Chief Financial Officer Nate Knuffman for more than 90 minutes. By the end of the discussion, the group had not cast a vote for or against Knuffman’s plan. Instead, they voted to send him back to the drawing board and told him to bring back a new proposal on Thursday that would keep in-state undergraduate tuition flat, while raising out-of-state graduate tuition to make up for the change.
The UNC System Board of Governors, which has the final say over tuition proposals from the 16 universities it oversees, is allowing campuses next year to raise tuition for new in-state undergraduates for the first time in nearly a decade. Current students will continue paying the existing rates, per state law.
When he stepped back up to the lectern on Thursday, Knuffman didn’t have a new plan. He instead asked the board to “reconsider” the original proposal, saying he and other university leaders believed it was the best option to balance “the need for additional resources while also remaining consistent with our long-standing commitment to affordability.”
Knuffman also emphasized a point Chancellor Lee Roberts made Wednesday: that not raising tuition would reflect poorly on the university at the state legislature, which provides much of UNC-CH’s revenue. That dynamic is especially precarious, Knuffman and Roberts warned, given that the legislature hasn’t provided funding based on enrollment—typically the UNC System’s largest annual ask from the General Assembly—for any campus this year amid an ongoing budget stand-off.Â
“We remain concerned about the dynamic where UNC-Chapel Hill is requesting a sizable level of enrollment dollars, likely north of $15 million, from the legislature, yet we’re not using all the options available to us to generate additional dollars,” Knuffman said Thursday.
The legislature has already signaled an interest in cutting university budgets, with both the House and Senate budget proposals including various levels of funding reductions. State leaders have said that North Carolina’s revenue in the coming years is likely to be less robust than the past several years; Democratic Gov. Josh Stein at multiple points has warned that the state could be approaching a “fiscal cliff.”
On Wednesday, those against Knuffman’s proposal—led by trustees Jim Blaine and Marty Kotis—spoke most often and emphatically, citing the state constitution’s directive that higher education “as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense,” and what the pair argued were examples of wasteful spending across the university that could be cut before passing on tuition increases to students.
But by Thursday, those in support of the CFO’s plan became more vocal.
Trustee Jennifer Lloyd called Blaine and Kotis’ efforts to keep the in-state rate flat “honorable and admirable.” But she said it was time for the university’s tuition to “reflect the value of its market” and bring in more revenue.
“We need to generate revenue in every legitimate place, as reasonable free-market principles dictate,” Lloyd said. “The value of this education here is higher than we charge.”
The higher tuition rate for new in-state students is expected to generate about $800,000 for the university next year, then grow with each incoming class.
Asked by Blaine how the funds would be used, Roberts said that UNC-CH’s “traditional sources of revenue are all under stress” from the federal and state governments and that the university is also seeking to support his strategic priorities, including campus development and expanding offerings in engineering.
Blaine replied that Roberts’ response wasn’t “much of an answer” and contended using tuition to bring more money to the university, instead of finding cuts, was using the “lazy button.” The university is currently seeking to cut $70 million, or about 2 percent of its operating budget, in response to state and federal funding pressures.
Trustee Ralph Meekins said the university should raise tuition while the Board of Governors is allowing it to do so, for fear that keeping the rates stagnant could create larger issues later.
“I’m concerned that if we continue to go in that route, at some point in time, to the extent we ever do have any type of crisis, we’re not going to be talking about 3 percent,” Meekins said. “We’re gonna be talking about something that’s much, much more significant and will hit future students a lot harder.”
Joining Lloyd and Meekins in supporting the tuition hike were board chair Malcolm Turner, Ritch Allison, Vinay Patel, and Adolfo Alvarez, the student body president. Joining Blaine and Kotis on the opposing side were former chair John Preyer, Brian Allen, and Patrick Ballantine. Four of the board’s 15 members were absent: Rob Bryan, Perrin Jones, Vimal Kolappa, and Ramsey White, who attended the meeting virtually but was not permitted to vote.
Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s meeting, Roberts downplayed the drama.
“The purpose of a board is to have a range of views. If everybody agreed on everything all the time, you wouldn’t need a board,” he said. “And I think what you saw was a really robust, fair discussion about the importance of affordability.”
In addition to raising in-state undergraduate tuition, the approved plan would also raise out-of-state undergraduate tuition by 10 percent and increase school-specific tuition only for graduate students in the School of Government, the pharmacy school, and the law school. The plan also included hikes to student fees to fund a new campus recreation center, as well as for housing and dining.
In a stark contrast to the lengthy affair at UNC-CH, a committee of the N.C. State Board of Trustees on Thursday approved tuition and fee increases, including for in-state undergraduates, with no discussion. The full board is set to consider the plan Friday.
The Board of Governors is expected to consider campuses’ tuition proposals at its meetings in January and February.