CHAPEL HILL (May 20, 2020) – The UNC System’s governing board voted Wednesday to freeze tuition and fees at North Carolina’s 16 public universities for 2020-21.
Because state law locks tuition for each class of entering freshmen, the action effectively sets tuition levels for four years for students who will enter in Fall 2020.
Twelve state universities sought to increase tuition this year. UNC Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey said the board initially intended to approve modest increases in February, but postponed the decision as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and the effect on family budgets became evident.
“We all believed that the state of North Carolina had enough problems, and we wanted to do all we can to keep their children in our classrooms,” Ramsey said.
INTERIM SYSTEM PRESIDENT Bill Roper said state universities could still face substantial budget challenges in the coming year due to the effects of the pandemic on state revenues, however. The UNC System already trimmed its 2020-21 budget request to state legislators by $85 million.
Though the state’s income-tax deadline was postponed until July and clear revenue projections aren’t yet available, “We’re totally focused on how to best serve North Carolina while spending less,” Roper told the board.
As the General Assembly resumed its 2020 session this week, Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters the state could see a revenue shortfall of $4 billion, or about 16% of its $25 billion budget, possibly requiring substantial cuts in state funding.
The legislature recently allocated $1.6 billion of the $3.5 billion it received in federal CARES Act funds, including $44.4 million to help state universities respond to the virus. Berger said he hopes federal officials will allow flexibility with the remaining $2 billion so the state can avoid cuts to education.1
During discussion of the tuition freeze, BOG member Marty Kotis offered, then withdrew, a motion to allow increases in tuition and fees for out-of-state students. Kotis noted that the state constitution’s requirement for low tuition applies only to in-state students.
“There are limited resources,” he said. “We have a duty to the people of the state to educate them ‘as free as practicable.’”
Roper replied that he agreed, but said the university is too far along in the tuition-setting process to change now.
IN OTHER ACTIONS, Roper and the Board of Governors:
- Named Brian Cole Chancellor of the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Cole joined UNCSA in 2016 as Dean of the School of Music and has served as Interim Chancellor since August 2019, when Lindsay Bierman left to become CEO at UNC-TV. He will assume the role of Chancellor immediately and be paid $280,000.
“UNCSA is a truly special and unique place,” Cole told the board. “There’s no other place like it in North Carolina or, really, in the whole country.” - Awarded the 2020 O. Max Gardner Award to Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill and Director of the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders. The Gardner Award is the highest honor for UNC faculty, reserved for those who “made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.”
1https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article242816896.html.
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