Focus On...University Costs

When the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill added a tuition increase of $400 in late January, students, faculty, and parents took notice.

So did UNC-TV, with a special program discussing both tuition increases in the UNC system over the past year. Focus On...University Costs combines a group of panelists and an audience together for a discussion and question/answer session about what it costs to keep a state university running and whether raising tuition prevents some high school graduates from being able to go to college.

The discussion centered on the debate over whether last year's tuition increases are constitutional, since Article IX of North Carolina's Constitution stipulates that "the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense." A panel of six experts, representing the University of North Carolina, the Board of Governors and the North Carolina State Legislature talked with an audience of students from at least 5 of the UNC campuses about increases in tuition, financial aid, taxes and the total cost of attending a university.

On the panel were UNC President Molly Broad, Senator Howard Lee (D-Orange County), Representative Art Pope (R-Wake County), UNC Board of Governor member Brad Wilson, UNC-Wilmington Chancellor James Luetze and UNC Board of Governor student representative Andrew Payne. Tim Crowley, news anchor for Legislative Week in Review and North Carolina Now, facilitated the discussion.

After presenting a short news clip from North Carolina Now on tuition increases, Crowley invited the audience to ask questions. Several students from the audience asked about the justification behind increasing tuition when the state Constitution implies that higher education is the legislature's responsibility. Other questions included the possibility of outsourcing some of the non-student services, repealing tax breaks for corporations and allowing the student representative of the Board of Governors the right to vote on issues.