UNC campuses slated for new fee, tuition increases

RALEIGH

University of North Carolina students who pay in-state rates are facing a more than $400 tuition increase, despite President Barack Obama's warning that schools could lose funding if they don't find ways to keep costs down.

The issue is especially touchy in the state that established America's first public university. Student groups from across the state are planning to march Friday, just before university system trustees vote on the proposed $468 increase.

Juan Miranda, a 21-year-old senior studying sociology at UNC-Greensboro, said he's struggling to pay for school and is working to organize a caravan of students for the protest.

"It's becoming more of a luxury every day. It's really no longer something you can just expect to do after high school because it's becoming really difficult, especially for working-class families, people of color and immigrants," said Miranda, whose family immigrated from Ecuador when he was 9.

But the cost increases the public university system's president is recommending are well below what campus leaders said they needed and will make up just 17 percent of the $414 million cut by state legislators last year. The budget cut forced the 16 university campuses and the School of Science and Math in Durham to drop more than 3,000 employees, cut library hours at Appalachian State University and UNC-Wilmington, and prevent hundreds of North Carolina Central University students from enrolling in general education math courses, according to a UNC System report on the impact of reduced funding.

"I believe that these recommendations balance the campuses' demonstrated need for increased resources with the limited ability of many students and families to sustain further tuition increases in this tough economy," UNC System President Tom Ross said in a letter to board members. "This modest infusion of new revenues will help to stabilize campus operations and give our campuses limited relief from years of continuous budget cuts."

The undergraduate North Carolina resident student pays an average tuition and fees of $5,294 a year, not including books and living expenses. It is higher at the system's two flagship schools, with UNC-Chapel Hill students paying $6,823 and North Carolina State University charging $6,964.

Ross is recommending raising those costs by an average of 8.8 percent when the new academic year starts in August. The bills would increase by 4.3 percent, or $199, next year at UNC-Pembroke. At the high end, costs would rise by 9.9 percent at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Asheville, Winston-Salem State University, Western Carolina University, and the UNC School of the Arts. That means tuition increases ranging from $447 at WSSU to $676 at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The average increase would be less than the 9.3 percent hike approved last year. The university board has wrestled with overshooting a self-imposed limit on tuition increases of 6.5 percent a year.

Ross proposed increasing tuition by another 4.2 percent on average for the 2013-14 academic year, though Fayetteville State University students would see no further increase.

Out-of-state undergraduate students can expect an increase next fall averaging 5.2 percent, increasing their bill by $923 to $17,995. Campuses are generally limited to admitting no more than 18 percent of a freshman class' students from outside North Carolina.

Students aren't the only ones pushing back against the increasing cost of earning a diploma increasingly seen as the surest ticket not only to a prosperous life but even for a place in the U.S. middle class.

Obama said last month that higher education costs have become unrealistic for too many families. He said he was "putting colleges on notice" he wouldn't stand for annual tuition increases and would work to change a federal funding formula so it favors schools that hold down costs and help more poor students graduate.

Current and former members of the UNC Board of Governors also have expressed worries that years of deep cuts in state funding are shifting more and more college costs from a shared burden with taxpayers to the backs of students, who increasingly must rely on financial aid and loans.

The public value of helping pay for university education has been a foundational principal in North Carolina. The state constitution requires that attending a UNC school should be free "as far as practicable."

That requirement to offer low-cost, if no longer free, higher education has created public universities seen as some of the country's best values. UNC-Chapel Hill has been the No. 1 university bargain for more than a decade, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. UNC-Wilmington, N.C. State, Appalachian State, UNC School of the Arts, and UNC-Asheville also scored in the magazine's top 50 best values.

Average tuition and fees at public four-year colleges rose 8 percent this year to $8,244 for in-state students, according to the College Board.