In fiscal 2009, UNC Chapel Hill's endowment lost nearly 20 percent of its value. In real numbers, that's $440 million, from $2.2 billion to about $1.8 billion.

"That's a painful, significant loss," John King, of the UNC Management Co., told campus trustees this week. "It's something we'll be dealing with for a while."

Though tough to stomach, the endowment loss is not unusual. Universities everywhere have struggled this year with significant decreases in the value of their endowments. A study by Cambridge Associates shows that the average loss in fiscal 09 by a group of 163 colleges and universities is 20 percent - so UNC-CH is right at the average.

"Fiscal 09 was the worst college endowment year in decades - I'd even say years," King told trustees. "It's going to take a lot of time to repair the damage that occurred last year."

For more on the university's annual endowment fund report, click the document attached to this blog post.

Documents:

At UNC Chapel Hill, trustees have signed off on a tuition and fee increase package for the next academic year.

The plan, which will now be submitted to the UNC system's Board of Governors, raises tuition $200 for in-state students. Out-of-state undergrads would get a $1,127 rate hike, while out-of-state grad students would pay $732 more in 2010-11.   Fees would go up $96.01 for all students.

Under the plan, in-state undergraduate students would pay $5,921.42 in tuition and fees next year, and out-of-staters would pay $24,736.42.

Those numbers do not include room, board, books and other expenses.

There's a catch to all this. The 2009 General Assembly has already set rates for 2010-11 that will raise in-state tuition $200 or 8 percent, whichever is less. That decision trumps anything on the campus or UNC-system level.

So the tuition rates the UNC-CH campus trustees approved today include that $200 increase for in-state students.

But last UNC system President Erskine Bowles said recently that legislative leaders  are willing to listen to alternate proposals.

If the General Assembly's edict holds, all tuition revenue raised would go into the state's general fund. If it decides next year to adopt a university tuition plan instead, revenue raised would be used for campus needs, and half of it would be set aside for financial aid.

Campus officials would very much like to keep that $200 that the General Assembly has targeted for the General Fund.

The increase for nonresident students has created some discontent, but campus and UNC-system leaders have long viewed those students differently than North Carolinians. Tuition for out-of-state students has often been set with market and competitiveness data used as guidelines.

Ryan Morgan, a UNC-CH student representing 5,000 other non-resident students, told trustees prior to Thursday's vote that the cost of an out-of-state education is forcing some students to withdraw.

"I myself am graduating one year early because I can't afford to stay here an additional year," said Morgan, who is from Alabama. "Out-of-state students are imperative to the quality of the university. What good is the best university in the country if you can't afford it?"

Read more on this issue in Friday's News & Observer.

This semester, N.C. Central University had such an enrollment surge that they had to put about 300 students in a local hotel.

There are still about 100 students living in the Millennium Hotel, but the lease with the university expires in December, officials said today.

All those students will live on campus next semester, campus leaders said today during a board of trustee meeting.

Here's the background.

The UNC Board of Governors plans to take up the issue of paid leaves for administrators at its meetings Thursday and Friday, addressing concerns that the often six-figure payments to campus officials have gotten out of hand.

The leaves are intended to help administrators prepare for a return to teaching, but The News & Observer reported in August that paid leaves had been given to campus administrators who then retired, got jobs elsewhere or were shown the door. Some leave deals also violated UNC system policies.

Here's more from staff writer Eric Ferreri's Campus Notes blog. 

Documents:

This week, the UNC system's Board of Governors will consider a policy change that will significantly curtail the research leaves that the system president and campus chancellors have traditionally received.

The change follows several months of discussion prompted at least in part by a News & Observer examination of the current leave policy, under which the university system granted leaves and paid out $8 million over the last five years to 117 administrators.

The policy has allowed senior administrators with five years of service a research leave of up to one year the the same salary they earned in that administrative post. Under the changes proposed by UNC President Erskine Bowles, those leaves will be limited to six months at a salary level commensurate with those in the academic department where the employee would return to.

In today's Durham News, more on the recent selection of N.C. Central University's Marching Sound Machine band to perform in the 2011 Tournament of Roses.

That's the New Year's Day Rose Bowl parade, one prong of the holy trinity of achievement for marching bands. (Also coveted: a slot in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the John Philip Sousa Foundation's Sudler Trophy recognizing the best band in the land.

In inviting the NCCU band to the big bash, the parade's director, Stacy Houser, wrote to band director Jorim Reid that the band was chosen because of "excellent musical talents, entertainment value, performance skills, efforts and your outstanding directorship."

Some factoids on the parade, in case you're thinking of going:

* The parade is held in Pasadena, Calif. 

* It starts at 8 a.m. local time. The route is about 5.5 miles and the parade lasts about 2.5 hours.

*The parade draws about 40 million television viewers each year.

Click here for more on the parade.

A bizarre story out at the University of Arizona, where 10,000 copies of a recent edition of the Daily Wildcat school newspaper went missing.

Hmm. The newspaper's editors think members of Phi Kappa Psi, a fraternity stole the papers because of a police item involving a couple of frat brothers.

Here's where the fun starts: The papers were reportedly recovered in a heap out on the outskirts of town...along with some homework bearing the names of two fraternity brothers.

Whoops.

Now, the student paper is challenging the fraternity to a duel. Okay, maybe not a duel, exactly, but in this column, the paper's managing editor is clearing throwing down a challenge.

Arizona's president, by the way, is Robert Shelton, the former UNC Chapel Hill provost. Shelton condemned the theft of the papers, telling the student newspaper that it is "completely counter to the principles of freedom of expression that we embrace at the UA."

The Thursday night football game UNC hosted last month went well enough that the university expects to do it again.

The Oct. 22 game against Florida State was the first Thursday night game ever held on the UNC campus. For years,  officials had opposed the idea due to fears of congestion and other campus disruption.

But this year's game was held over Fall break, and athletics director Dick Baddour and others were pleased with how things went.

For the story, check out our higher education blog.

Duke broke ground today on a big new cancer center, one half of a $700 million construction project designed at least in part to enhance the health care system's global brand.

The cancer center, slated to open in 2012, follows a similar project at UNC Chapel Hill, which just opened its own cancer hospital.

The Duke facility will put cancer research and clinical services under one roof and will come as cancer rates continue to rise. The N.C. health department has predicted a 16 percent hike in cancer cases from 2006 to 2011, with a 21 percent hike in the Triangle over that same time period.

Jarring stuff, and sobering enough to prompt Gov. Beverly Perdue, who attended the Friday ceremony, to say "I don't ask if I'll be diagnosed, but when, because it's so prevalent among us."

For more, read Saturday's News & Observer.

The number of high school seniors applying to Duke University through the Early Decision process rose 32 percent from last year.
 
Those who apply via this process commit to enrolling at Duke if accepted. That decision comes in December.

“Last year, we received 1,535 Early Decision applicants, which had been our second highest total,” Christoph Guttentag, Duke's undergraduate admissions dean, said in a Tuesday news release.  “This year, we’ve recorded 2,040.”
 
Guttentag attributed the increase to a number of factors. For one, a rise in applications last year - 17 percent over the previous year - that got people's attention. Also, Duke and other universities have in recent years placed a greater emphasis on student aid, leading more students to apply.