'UNC Panel Approves Tuition, Fee Increases'

WRAL The University of North Carolina Board of Governors on Friday approved tuition and fee increases for the 16-campus system of between 8 percent and 20 percent. The board, with no debate, approved the increases that its budget and finance committee had recommended Thursday. he tuition increases will bring in extra revenues of nearly $21 million for pay raises for professors and administrators and almost $19 million to help cover tuition bills for financially needy students. Another $6 million will be spent on student services, libraries, technology improvements and other priorities, university officials said. The increases for in-state tuition and fees range from 8 percent at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and UNC-Pembroke to 20 percent at Appalachian State University. Other schools and their increases are: East Carolina, 9.97 percent; North Carolina State University, 9.32 percent; UNC Greensboro, 10.13 percent; UNC Wilmington, 12.15 percent; and Fayetteville State University, 12.78 percent. Out-of-state tuition and fees will increase from less than 1 percent at UNC-Pembroke to nearly 7 percent at UNC-Chapel Hill. Zach Wynne of Appalachian State, the board's student member, said he supported the increases because he hoped they would limit campus budget cuts. "There have been plenty of cuts," he said. "If students can support these proposals, they (legislators) will start to see that maybe they don't cut us so much in the future." On Thursday, the student body treasurer at UNC-Chapel Hill had said students "overwhelmingly oppose" a $50 increase in the university's athletic fee, especially because the fee increased $100 last year. Daneen Furr also said the athletics department has new sources of revenue, including an advertising contract with Wachovia worth $9 million over eight years. A change by the Legislature also allows campuses to charge out-of-state scholarship recipients in-state tuition rates. The change will benefit athletics departments and sports booster clubs. James Moeser, the UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor, said the campus needed what it requested. With an annual budget of about $45 million, the department supports 28 sports programs. The fee, he said, would help support sports that are not the large money makers. The board last year rejected campus requests for in-state tuition increases. This year, the board offered proposed increase limits for each campus.