UNCG proposes 10 percent hike in tuition, fees : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

GREENSBORO — Tuition would rise 10 percent for UNCG students next year according to a proposal the university’s tuition and fee committee presented Tuesday night to the Student Government Association.

In-state undergraduates would see a $660 increase in their bills next year — an extra $345 for tuition and $315 for fees, bringing total tuition and fees to $6,158.

The increase would generate $7.4 million, with half of it used to offset budget reductions. The rest of the money would be used for need-based financial aid and pay increases for faculty, who have gone without raises in recent years.

UNC leaders are allowing chancellors to propose increases above the 6.5 percent cap to help make up for budget cuts.

The universities’ boards of trustees and the UNC Board of Governors must approve any tuition increases.

The Board of Governors isn’t expected to vote until February but has asked campuses to submit their proposals by early December.

UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady said next year’s proposed increase is a temporary salve.

“That doesn’t restore the $26 million cut that we took at UNCG just this year,” she told students and faculty during the meeting in the Elliott University Center.

The meeting got off to a rocky start, with a group of about a dozen students interrupting it, calling the meeting a “sham.” They recited from slips of paper they held, demanding that there be no hike in tuition.

They also asked that the money UNCG is using to build student housing in the Glenwood neighborhood be used to close the budget gap.

Brady said housing fees will repay the debt on that project.

University police escorted the group from the room.

While the remainder of the meeting was mostly civil, students did ask some pointed questions, such as the amount of Brady’s salary and whether administrators would be willing to take a pay cut.

Brady, who answered that she makes $324,000 annually, said that employees have not been given pay raises in four years.

Junior Nick Foggie attended the meeting and was displeased with the proposed increase.

“I think it’s unnecessary. I think it’s a different way to do it,” said Foggie, adding that there should have been more done to inform students and to allow their voices to be heard in developing the proposal.

Five students are on the tuition and fee committee, but Foggie said he would like to know how those students were chosen.

UNCG’s board of trustees will meet next month, and the proposal could be tweaked at that time.

UNCG is hosting another forum on the increases at noon today in the auditorium of the Elliott University Center.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com

record2009

November 16, 2011 - 7:38 am EST

A 10% increase to include need based financial aid? If we are paying need based financial aid in the fees, then UNCG should provide every student/parent a tax statement so that we can get a charitable deduction. We have never received any need based financial aid from UNCG, we are paying the full bill via loans and savings. If we get a tax deduction when we give money to the telephone solicitors who request donations for the university, then this "hidden" need based financial aid charge should qualify for a tax deduction. UNCG is just like Bank of America with these hidden fees, and there is no benefit to the person who is charged the money. Are the people who receive need based financial aid also charge this fee so that the money goes right back into the need based financial aid pool? How much money goes toward need based financial aid out of the student fees. I believe that it is the citizens right to know how much they are paying. All employees of UNCG should be required to pay a portion of their salary to support need based financial aid, since they are the recipients of income based on the student fees.

balance

November 16, 2011 - 7:46 am EST

UNCG employees and faculty had nothing to do with this. Many have opposed this all along. Not that anybody is listening.

michellechighpoint

November 16, 2011 - 8:40 am EST

Well said! Our family does not qualify for aid but paying the bill each semester has become increasingly difficult. Our child finally had to take out a loan this fall. How is it legal that our student is forced to go into bondage to debt so that another student goes for free. It is either drop out of college or take out loans to pay for someone else. Why isn't this forced contribution considered a charitable tax deduction?

November 16, 2011 - 7:42 am EST

Well done UNCG students! The chancellor's plan to spend money in Glenwood is a horrible idea. Faculty and the community oppose it. The chancellor needs to stop ignoring the collective reason of the community. An enormous and unwanted project like Glenwood is financially and politically inappropriate in a time of budget cuts. She can't make the argument that cuts affect educational quality and simultaneously propose major spending at Glenwood. Asking students to shoulder the financial burden is unfair and ludicrous

Mad Dog

November 16, 2011 - 8:30 am EST

Note to Chancellor Brady: no state employees have been given a salary increase in four years at any university or agency.

Why should UNCG be any different?

GboroMan

November 16, 2011 - 8:44 am EST

I agree with record2009 - I want a tax deduction if I am giving away charity to those who need it, just like when I donate to the foodbank. That student fees are somehow needed to cover need-based aid shows just how far state support for higher education has fallen. The Glenwood project should be stopped NOW - no new monies or new programs or new projects in this current budget crisis situation. You really have to wonder just how detached Brady and her upper Administration minions are from reality.

Abruti

November 16, 2011 - 9:09 am EST

"employees have not been given pay raises in four years."

The chancellor is not being truthful in this assertion. There have not been any state-mandated raises in 4 years for non-faculty staff. However, there have been plenty of pay increases for high-level administrators and some faculty. Their salaries are public record. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at their salaries and see where the pay increases have been.

UNCGProf

November 16, 2011 - 11:02 am EST

Well, I haven't gotten a raise in 4 years. :) My understanding is the only people who got raises among the faculty are people who were promoted to a higher "rank," (from assistant professor to associate professor when they get tenure, or from associate to full professor about 10-12 years after that) but other than that, we got nothing. I'm not sure about raises among the administration.

We are also actively losing many professors in our school now because our salaries are far below the industry standard. So the best professors are switching over to jobs at schools that pay the standard or more. Is that going to be good for UNCG in the long term?

All that being said, I would rather forgo raises for yet another year than raise tuition on my already struggling students.

jstevenh1952

November 16, 2011 - 9:10 am EST

Still sounds like a heck of a deal to me. $6k for a quality education. Let's see, a student invests $25k to $30k in four years to have the potential to earn $1.0m over a lifetime. What's the catch?

Applicants are being turned away because of demand. Standards are increasing and curriculums are expanding. Sounds like it is working to me.

Education in our country particularly here in our state universitiesof NC are a deal.

November 16, 2011 - 9:11 am EST

Enrollment is shrinking at UNCG. Applicants are not being turned away because of demand but because they do not meet the academic standards.

November 16, 2011 - 9:59 am EST

So you would agree that it represents a heck of a deal? And you would agree stanadards are increasing? And really, how much is the enrollement declining? Below 5 year average, 10 year average? Year over year numbers are not very meaningful. In fact college enrollments may be increasing at a rate faster than you may realize.

You see the one item we have in this country that can never be duplicated or replaced by an infringing economic power are our Colleges and Universities. Think about it, have foreign enrollments increased or decreased? Are our universities that have engineering, science or other techincial platforms seeing incresing or declining enrollments?

I am hardly the one to evoke sympathy from, lifelong resident, growing up in Smith Homes, veteran and worked my way through my post high school education with a family, while starting a company that today that contributes to our local economy. I have little compassion on the fact a young person can make such a small investment in their future and reap such a benefit.

If your point is to challenge a few points of subjective content, you did well. Give haste to the Shakespear writings of MacBeth " full of sound and fury signifying nothing". (I left the first part out for our proctor, General Greene).

Of course I hear rumors abound that Congress is expanding the 28th amendment to include free education.

Panacea

November 16, 2011 - 11:17 am EST

Very few of those students will earn one million dollars over a life time. Many will work jobs with low entry level salaries, like teaching. And 25-30K is a lot of money when you don't have it, and have to take on loans with high interest rates that may take years to pay. Trying to pay back a student loan whose repayment rate may be 15% of your after tax income per month is a hardship on graduates making 28K/year.

If you think the US has cornered the market on higher education, think again. The gradual decay of our higher education system will eventually drive students overseas.

I congradulate you on your success in life. However, the fact you overcame such obstacles does not make it right to overcharge students while engaging in poorly thought out financial decisions on the part of a University (ie, money wasted on an unwanted housing project, high administrator salaries, and sports).

November 16, 2011 - 3:05 pm EST

Ahh, I was wondering when your post would appear.

If you are going to college to earn 25K per year, don't. And furthermore don't borrow money to do it. And if you choose this vocation, do we have a social responsibility to bear the financial risk? I think not.

Our firm pays no less than 50K per year for our skilled staff. Do the math, age 25 to 30 at 50K over 30 years is well over $1 million. Each of these team members have a four year degree. Heck even our receptionist has a four year degree and she post $35k to $40K.

I have yet to meet a graduate in our field that expects less and their talents merit it.

As far as education outside the U.S., you seem to be of the group that lacks the knowledge of our exceptionalism as a nation. I have yet to meet one parent that wanted to send their child to a foreign university, because the education there was superior to what we have in the U.S. Heck, look at the number of Indians, Asians and others that flock to our universities each year. I was speaking last year at UT in Austin and half the attendees were from India. On a panel recently at Georgia Tech, two thirds of the students were Asian. Now maybe you went to Europe or Asia for your education and that's fine, but its credentials certainly are not superior to ours. The evidence is in our enrollments.

Now granted , you may have gone to college locally and hocked yourself more than you should have. Now you face the economic realities that your eduation can't pay back the pompus six figure loan you accumulated.
So you have become petulant.

Or maybe you are just naive enough to believe that higher education is a social responsibility, to be paid for by the 1% 'ers. I don't know, you tell us.

Finally the connection to my success had little to to do with financial resources, but access. Because I had the access, I managed the financial issues. Furthermore I have raised seven children,. five of which attended college in this area. They never recieved financial aid (or even applied for it) nor did they use student loans. Our attitude was very logical. Go to college to build a career, work hard in school. Pay your own expenses with your free time and build your future. Don't expect the government to feed, house or educate you. You have all the opportunity to do that yourself. Now this may be foreign to you, but it demonstrates to me that American exceptionalis is stronger than ever. And yea, 6K for a year at a fine institution such as UNCG is a deal.

November 16, 2011 - 5:38 pm EST

Sooo . . . .

You don't want any teachers, fire fighters, police officers, waste management folks, or any of the other professions that keep society running but aren't paid a fraction of what they are worth?

Nice guy.

It's great your firm pays 50K for your staff. An entry level teacher gets 28K, and is the first on the layoff chopping block when budgets get tight.

Our exceptionalism is becoming a thing of the past. If you can't see it, then you need to take the blinders off your eyes. China will outstrip us before too much longer: they are buying up our technological expertise, and we aren't training enough math and science majors to keep ahead of them.

Do a little reading: India is working hard to develop universities that offer an American caliber education in Inda. Duke opened a campus IN China. Given the dumbing down of public education, pretty soon American students won't be able to get IN to a US university, much less finish.

I've never been to Europe or Asia. I just keep informed on what's going on in my own profession (higher education).

Enrollments say NOTHING about quality of education, NOR retention NOR graduation rates.

And since you bring it up: I have not one but two Master's degrees. The first I earned without taking any debt at all. I paid cash. It wasn't until the second that I had to take out loans . . . because the cost had skyrocketed to more than what I could pay out of pocket.

I believe higher education is crucially important to the future of our nation. Thomas Jefferson believed the same thing when he founded the University of Virginia. Think he was a socialist?

My parents also believed in hard work and education. Not going to college was not an option for me or my brother. They saved and paid for one BS degree for each of us. We each worked as well: I paid a goodly share of my first bachelor's degree because I was an LPN and I insisted on paying what I could towards my own education in spite of the fact my parents promised us a full ride on our first bachelor's degree.

6K/year might be a deal to you. It's a hardship for someone with no resources.

November 16, 2011 - 9:19 pm EST

Amazing. Nice input, but you overlooked one point......is the tuition paid a good deal or not.

You should have paid for you education, all of it. I would recommend rather than reading posts and blogging as you do, volunteer , teach a class, donate to a scholarship fund for disadvantaged students. Find ten kids who need help and buy their books.
regarding our country's exceptionalism , tell that to one of my sons who is serving in the military. Or my son who teaches in a school in Charlotte and tutors low income kids after hours for no pay, other than the satisfaction of seeing them excel.

You brag more than once your a nurse. Go to a veterans hospital and help rehabilitate those needing your expertise and help to recover from injuries they incurred while defending your freedom to debate on this site.

Do this and if you are, double your efforts. You represent , at least in your own words all that is correct. Set the pace, the you might understand what American exceptionalism is.

areyouserious

November 16, 2011 - 6:04 pm EST

Great story you have there. I love the part about you growing up in public housing... Yet, you give no credit for that foundation you had while you were honing your skills to come up with the master plan of your business. I guess sometimes we forget where we came from. What made us the people we are today. Putting 5 kids through college no loans, no financial aid. Thats impressive to say the least. It must be nice to just write a check and all is well. Unfortunately most 18 year olds with the dream of going to college don't have 6k in cash to attend school. Universities have the upper hand because they can set whatever price they want for education, knowing the government or banks will approve a loan to attend. So who is left holding the bag? The borrower. The person who can't write that check, like you're able to do. Might've been one of your neighbors back in Smith Homes, but because they don't have the opportunity life changes for them and society changes as a whole.

So the government gives you options. Financial Aid, a loan, scholarship maybe... Or go to the military, get your education that way. Luckily, I didn't have to pay for my education either. Because I received a 4 year scholarship based off my father being a disabled veteran. Not saying thats how your 5 kids did it, but isnt it great that I was afforded that opportunity as well? What a reward I received for my father's service! Now I have a really good job and i just bought a home! Im a productive member of this community.. All because I had that "access"...

I loved the statement about your success not being tied to financial resources rather it was "access". It makes sense to me. The problem is most of people will never have "access", those are the people I fight for. Its the reason I vote they way I do, the reason I give back the way I do, and heck sometimes isnt the reason why I give the panhandler money or a meal. So that maybe my doing will spark them in to "the realm of access"...

Please understand that, when you refer to the 1% vs. 99%. Understand you have an responsibility, as a product of public housing nonetheless, to reach back once you have attained such success as you have.

Sorry so long. But that bugs me...

November 16, 2011 - 9:23 pm EST

You and I most likely come from very different backgrounds and more likely than not perceive the society we live in today quite differently. But you miss my point .....does the tuition represent a fair value?

Regarding my return contributions to the freedoms and opportunities I have had the benefit of , need little explanation or justification. As you consider mine account for your own. Sponsor one or two students for scholarship, feed the hungry and clothe the poor. After you have exhausted all you resources then create a need to train others to do the same.

Unfortunately you are a a disadvantage since you don't much more about me other than my post.

November 16, 2011 - 10:41 pm EST

Haha, I'm bored, so i'll take the bait... To start, we don't come from different backgrounds at all. Maybe different generations, but i'd say similiar backgrounds indeed. You see. I remember standing in those lines to get cheese for my grandmother. Some of the best cheese you've ever had by the way! Hard to cut though..:-) Im sure you remember some of that based on where you grew up right? I've lived threw watching TV sitting on the floor, b/c the gunshots would ring out at night and you didnt want to stand up. But your story and mine only made us stronger. And we were able to achieve something different other than what our upbringing would have meant for us. Where it differs is your opinion of ones worth if they aren't making 50K.

In your words, Its not worth going to school if you're only going to make 28k a year. Really??? Yet you forget about all those teachers who taught your 7 kids and every other child in this state. That's a shame for such a well established person.

Now... to your point... "Does the cost of tuition represent a fair value?" Well, given your opinion of the 28k'ers. I'd say its not fair at all. UNLESS you can come off the price of tuition each semester by writing a check. But for the majority of Americans, whose only way is to get a loan and promise to pay it back when those 4 years are over, its not fair. Universities raise the cost of tuition because they know they are getting their money regardless. Someone is going to pay. Whether it be through grants, scholarships, or loans. Somone is going to pay. Unfortunately, most of those student will have loans. Unlike the few who can cut a check. Those are the ones who arent getting a fair deal.

Now your return contributions... blah blah blah, company right off, blah blah blah... Thats what that sounds like. Because again, you arent talking about "access" now. you're talking about what your financial resources have afforded you.

And lastly, the disadvantage is all yours! For coming off as smug, pompous, and inconsiderate of those that have laid the foundation that created your success. Attempt to see the world through the lense of those people you belittle. Then maybe people will get a better understanding of the individual and not the poster. With that said. I'm done and pray for your enlightenment. lol

November 16, 2011 - 12:08 pm EST

The NC state constitution requires that the state offer higher education to all eligible North Carolinians free or at the lowest price possible. I wish students would sue the legislature and force them to comply with this constitutional requirement. I'm confident they would have a strong case. The legislature has deliberately cut funding on the assumption that universities can raise tuition to cover costs.

November 16, 2011 - 5:09 pm EST

And raise your taxes! See below!

November 16, 2011 - 5:32 pm EST

In fact this is what the consitution says:

Sec. 9. Benefits of public institutions of higher education.
The General Assembly shall provide 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.

Now, since as long as I can remember it has not been "practicable" to provide a free education in the NC University system, what would you propose?

Increasing taxes?
Reducing the size of the the system?
What?

In 2011-12, public four-year colleges charge, on average, $8,244 in tuition and fees for in-state students. The average surcharge for full-time out-of-state students at these institutions is $12,526.

A student paying that 75% of that cost is very reasonable and by in large represents an tremendous value.

Let's do the math once again:

25K for a great education for a lifetime of earning. I know this just ranks the heck out of those that turn to the government for everything, but these arguments are weak.

One other point we offerred two interships this past summer for a scholarship of $3500. (stipend or tution) We promoted them to UNCG, A&T and other schools. No takers. We were very surprised. But we did manage to attract a student from Baylor and one from another school in the UNC system.

Prof, sounds like the few students that are letting go are not looking at all their options, at least to us.

November 16, 2011 - 11:03 am EST

enrollment shrunk slightly last year- because we raised the minimum SAT score that students must have to be admitted and admitted fewer students. But enrollment actually shrunk less than it was projected to shrink.

November 16, 2011 - 2:20 pm EST

What that tells me is that UNCG doesn't have people pounding on the doors to get in. Chapel Hill could raise SAT standards and still increase enrollment because of high demand to attend their school. UNCG does not have that luxury. Their enrollment decreased because, after raising admission standards, there wasn't enough demand to increase enrollment.

I see 3 choices available to UNC schools.

1. Raise tuition

2. Increase the budget through legislative action

3. Operate more efficiently and cut the fat.

I don't think enough attention is being paid to number 3.

November 16, 2011 - 2:56 pm EST

I guess it depends on who is doing the measuring. I am certain there is room at the Trustee level for fine folks as yourself to providee constructive dialogue and move this forward. What do you think?

sail

November 16, 2011 - 3:38 pm EST

Good point #3--
Wonder when the last time our State Universities were audited?

snapandwhistle

November 16, 2011 - 4:30 pm EST

Every year.

November 17, 2011 - 9:05 am EST

By state employees.

November 16, 2011 - 9:15 am EST

For those thinking they are entitled to a tax deduction for contributing to another's tuition, think about it this way:

I have no kids attending a state university. However, my tax dollars supplement each in-state student's cost of attendance at the cost of about $12,000 per student per year. So, even if you pay $6000 for your kid to attend college, taxpayers are picking up the other $12,000.

I do not agree with this socialist redistribution of wealth but I just wanted to point out that it goes much further than just needs-based aid.

November 16, 2011 - 5:29 pm EST

Now wait a minute. First you want to sue someone because its not free, then you point out that your paying the freight with tax subsidies.

Do you hear yourself?

Assume, it is free. Then you my fine taxpaying buddy will pay 100% of the cost!

Face it, the money tree died and now yours, mine and theirs should bear financial responsibility for their futures.

November 17, 2011 - 9:06 am EST

You've got me confused with someone else. I never said anything about suing because it wasn't free.

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