Students at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State will pay $750 more in tuition in 2010-11 under a plan okayed this week.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles today unveiled a tuition hike plan intended to allow public university campuses to raise revenue to counter legislatively mandated cuts to their budgets.

What it means: At UNC-CH and NCSU, all students will pay $750 more next year. At N.C. Central University in Durham, tuition will go up $435.

Bowles and other university officials say the tuition hikes are the best of a series of bad options to raise the money needed to stave off the elimination of instructors and class sections and other potential cuts to the academic experience.

These increases are dramatic; at UNC-CH, this year's $4,066 tuition for in-state undergraduates will rise 18 percent, a far larger jump than is customary in a state that has long treasured the notion of an affordable education at a state university.

But university officials say the UNC system is still a good deal; all campuses are still in the lowest quarter, in terms of tuition rates, when compared to their public peer institutions.

For more, read Wednesday's News & Observer.

The UNC system's governing board meets Tuesday to talk about tuition hikes for this fall at public universities. But unlike most of the times when the board deliberates over tuition hikes, it will wield no real power.

The General Assembly, in a special provision tucked into the recently-approved state budget, allowed campuses to increase tuition by as much as $750 as a way of mitigating their portions of a $70 million cut to the UNC system's budget.

But according to the language of the provision, those tuition hikes need only UNC system President Erskine Bowles' approval, not the usual "yes" vote from the governing board.

Still, Bowles and the campuses are expected to brief board members Tuesday on whether they want to raise tuition for the 2010-11 school year and if so, by how much. The $750 in extra tuition would come along with a $200 increase already approved for the coming school year.

It isn't yet clear whether all campuses want to increase tuition. Chancellors Holden Thorp at UNC-Chapel Hill and Randy Woodson at N.C. State have each said tuition hikes were likely, though it isn't yet known whether they'll seek the entire $750.

The university system received a $70 million budget cut for 2010-11, and legislators offered up the tuition hike provision as a way for campuses to raise revenue.

University officials, who prior to the state budget's approval feared a far larger cut, now face the prospect of tuition hikes as the only way to raise enough money to protect classroom instruction.

"Every part of this is distressing," said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors. "If you had told me five years ago I'd be pleased with a $70 million budget cut, I'd say you need to be committed. Is anybody excited about this? No. But the board does feel strongly that there is some [academic] quality erosion occurring. We're not doing anything extravagant. We're doing it to protect instruction."

The tuition provision could create problems for campuses. It stipulates that 20 percent of revenue raised be used for need-based financial aid. But campuses routinely hold back 30 percent or more for aid since when rates go up, more students qualify for financial assistance.
 

In late May, budget writers in the State House had the rather audacious notion to suggest a 1 percent cap on enrollment in 2011-12 at the state's public universities.

It would be, they said, an attempt to get a better handle on what had become an overly difficult task of predicting enrollment growth and funding.

The idea was met in gasps by UNC system supporters who saw it as a direct attack on the state's long held belief in the importance of access to education. Capping enrollment, they argued, would mean turning young North Carolinians away, and that is a restriction of access.

Not so much, argues Jay Schalin with the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.

Writing today on the Pope Center's website, Schalin suggests that universities limit access all the time simply by selecting some applicants and turning others away.

Further, Schalin says a cap would make sense in strict financial terms. With the state still struggling, the cap would ease the strain.

 "It represents a common sense approach for dealing with a changing reality, one in which the state government must limit spending or risk bankrupting the state," Schalin writes. "The UNC system has long been on the receiving end of the legislature's generosity in good times, sometimes excessively so. This year, acknowledging that this must change, Ray Rapp, the chairman of the House education appropriations committee, said that there cannot continue to be an "open checkbook " for UNC's growth."

You can read Schalin's entire piece here.

The proposed cap was not approved.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles stops just short of turning cartwheels today, so pleased he appears to be at the final state budget rolling out this week.

Bowles has reason to be happy. The final budget cut to public universities is $70 million, far less than the $175 million the State House had proposed.

The House proposal would have forced the elimination of 1,700 positions across the university. It isn't yet clear how many jobs will be lost to the approved $70 million cut because a provision allowing state campuses to increase tuition up to $750 complicates the math.

A tuition hike would increase revenue for campuses, but it isn't yet clear, officials say, whether campuses want to raise those rates.

Here's what Bowles has to say about the state budget.

“Legislators really stood up for our University and our 225,000 students in these hard times when money is scarce. On a relative basis and particularly considering the economic climate, the 2010-11 state budget we received from the General Assembly was nothing short of remarkable.

We knew there were going to be significant cuts in every part of state government, and the University took its fair share. But the legislature really worked hard to help us protect the quality of education we can deliver to our students. While there were targeted cuts to various University programs, the legislature held additional management flexibility cuts to $70 million.

In the end, the General Assembly also committed to fully fund the University’s requests for need-based financial aid, enrollment growth, and operating reserves for new buildings. It also adopted the Board of Governors’ alternative tuition plan for the coming year and authorized additional tuition increases to help offset the impact of budget cuts. Importantly, the final budget does not include a provision that would have effectively capped University enrollment growth and denied access to qualified North Carolinians.

This tangible show of support is vitally important to the economic future of North Carolina. The Board of Governors, our boards of trustees, faculty, staff, and most importantly, our students join me in thanking the General Assembly for this remarkable show of confidence in our public universities.”

UNC System President Erskine Bowles said Friday that after talking with key House members the day before that there was a good chance the House would drop a provision from its budget to cap UNC system enrollment growth at 1 percent annually.

That cap would have prevented about 2,700 qualified students from being admitted this year, system officials have said.

 Bowles, speaking at a news conference after a Board of Governors meeting, said that he had also talked about the proposed cap with Gov. Beverly Perdue Friday morning and that she, like him, was angry at the thought of the system turning away qualified applicants for the first time in its history.

Perdue told him that the first reason major employers give for deciding to move  operations to North Carolina is the university system, specifically the quality of education it offers and quantity of well-educated graduates it turns out each year, Bowles said.

"We are the economic recruitment tool for North Carolina, and that's why she is going to support our efforts," he said.

UNC Board of Governors chairwoman Hannah Gage said legislators were catching heat over the proposal from voters in their districts.

"I think this has been very upsetting to families and parents," she said. "The idea that a qualified student would not be accepted because we have shut the door has offended a lot of people."

 UNC system leaders said Friday that they were lobbying hard for authorization from state Legislature to give furloughs to university workers as one more tool to prevent or reduce layoffs.

The legislature, which faces an $800 million revenue shortfall, is working to reconcile different versions of the budget passed by the House and Senate. The House version has $175 million in cuts for the UNC system and the Senate version $54 million.

Under the House version of the budget, university leaders say they would have to slash 1,700 jobs, with about 1,000 of those filled. Many of those would be faculty positions, system President Erskine Bowles said, because after trimming 23 percent of the system's administrative costs last year, and losing $575 million from its budget in the past few years, there was almost nothing left to cut outside the classrooms.

Furloughs would save $8 million a day, Bowles said.

At that rate, seven days of furloughs could more than cover the Senate cuts.

Furloughs would only be used as a last resort to save jobs after other means of cutting had fallen short, system leaders said.

"I think with furloughing, we're looking for some wiggle room something to help us piece it together until things get better and we have some permanent plan in place," said UNC Board of Governors Chairwoman Hannah Gage. "We want to have every possible tool we can have to protect the quality of the system, and furloughing would help."

Bowles said he thought the Senate would back the necessary enabling legislation, and some House members would, too. It was crucial, he said, to preserve as many jobs as possible, particularly faculty positions, until the recession passes.

"I hope they will allow us to do it," he said. "It would be a shame to destroy the university, and the academic portion of the university for what should be, hopefully, a short term economic problem."

He said that he thought university employees also would support the idea as long as it was clear that the system leaders had take every other step they could to avoid firing people.

Bowles said he wasn't sure exactly how any furlough would be implemented. He said that he and the chancellors of the various universities would talk about that at their regular meeting at the end of the month.

It's obvious, he said, that furloughs cut into productivity, but one way to blunt that impact might be to schedule them on days where employees were less productive anyway, such as the last workday before major holidays.

Greg Doucette knows better than most just how tough it can be to pay your way through college.

Doucette, an N.C. State grad and current N.C. Central University law student, recently stepped down as the president of the Association of Student Governments, the group of student leaders from across the UNC system.

In that role, Doucette served on the UNC system's Board of Governors, where he routinely put a face to the budget-cut issue by telling his own story about struggling with tuition payments while at NCSU. He dropped out for a while, putting his college career on hold for several years.

Now, he writes of budget cuts to the UNC system proposed by both the state House and Senate. The Senate spending plan, while generally easier on the university system, still proposes a $50 million cut and would increase tuition $750.

And the House budget calls for a far larger cut. UNC President Erskine Bowles says it would result in the elimination of 1,700 jobs across the public university system.

In a letter submitted to the News & Observer, Doucette lays out his concerns.

Here it is:

It was during North Carolina's previous recession, roughly a decade ago, when the General Assembly last considered such deep cuts to our state's public universities comparable to those now proposed by the House. Unsurprisingly, those cuts led to dramatic increases in tuition rates (similar to the $750+ per student increase now proposed by the Senate) to make up for the losses in revenue.

With warm regards,
T. Greg Doucette

The writer is a student at the N.C. Central University School of Law, and President Emeritus of the UNC Association of Student Governments.

The House's proposed budget for the state's university system would slash $175 million from the university's budget.

That's a far bigger hit than the Senate's $50 million proposed previously. It's also a larger cut than Gov. Beverly Perdue has recommended.

The House is expected to vote on its budget next week and already Thursday, UNC leaders were sounding alarms.

"We're not as excited about the House budget as we were about the Senate budget," Holden Thorp, chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill, told his trustees Thursday morning. "There are some very severe cuts."

If approved, the cuts would lead to the elimination of about 1,700 positions across the university system, a far larger total than the 1,200 in jeopardy under Perdue's spending proposal, UNC President Erskine Bowles said Thursday.

"Fully understanding the impacts of these reductions will take some time," Bowles said in a news release Thursday. "In all of our previous analyses, we never imagined that reductions would reach this level."

Even if 1,700 positions are eliminated, fewer workers than that would actually lose their jobs. Universities routinely hold positions vacant to prepare for budget cuts.

Still, Bowles and others have said for months now that cuts at that level will force the elimination of hundreds of faculty positions across the state.

Read Friday's News & Observer for more.

The next president of the UNC system could earn as much as $550,000 annually.

A committee searching for a successor to UNC system President Erskine Bowles settled Tuesday on a salary range of $495,000 to $550,000. In doing so, members acknowledged the delicate task of weighing competitiveness with public perception.

"We've got to be competitive in the marketplace," said John Davis, a member of the UNC system's Board of Governors. "But we can't be ridiculous and over the top."

With this range, the next system president will earn more than Bowles, whose current annual pay is $478,291.

The president's salary will be paid entirely with taxpaper dollars. Even at the high end of the salary range, the next president will likely earn at least slightly less, in total compensation, than peers at universities of similar size and prestige level, said R. William Funk, a consultant aiding university system leaders in the search.

"Folks come into higher education not to become wealthy," Funk told search committee members Tuesday. "But they want to be compensated similar to others doing comparable work."

Read Wednesday's News & Observer for more on this story.

Erskine Bowles sat through his final UNC-Chapel Hill commencement Sunday.

As president of the UNC system, Bowles spends a lot of time at graduations at the system's various campuses, and has consistently taken part in the annual exercise at Carolina, his alma mater.

But Bowles, who took over as system president in 2006, retires at the end of the year.

"It's been the greatest personal privilege of my adult life," he told graduates, thanking them Sunday for letting him be a part of their special day. "You can't love a place more than I love this place right here."