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Update: UNCG trustees approve tuition, fee hikes

Friday, December 2, 2011
(Updated 1:09 pm)
By Jonnelle Davis
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO -- UNCG’s trustees this morning unanimously approved a plan to increase tuition 10 percent next year, as well as a proposal that could boost tuition as much as 10 percent for three years beyond.

Following a recommendation from UNCG’s tuition and fee committee, trustees voted to raise tuition by $345 for in-state undergraduates and fees by $315 for 2012-13, bringing total tuition and fees to $6,153.

But they also approved a proposal from Chancellor Linda Brady that would allow her to seek additional increases of up to 3.5 percent for another three years. That supplemental increase would be in addition to any other campus- initiated tuition increase the university seeks.

The proposals for tuition increases now move forward to the UNC Board of Governors, which will consider them in February.

See full coverage in Saturday's News & Record.

 

Accompanying Photos

File photo (News & Record)

Photo Caption: UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady

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Abruti

December 2, 2011 - 8:49 am EST

I believe the State Legislature or General Assembly would have to approve these tuition increases as well.

The reason the legislature and many of the students and parents paying tuition are angry at the university is that they still don't get it.

With high unemployment, foreclosures, etc., these institutions still think they need to give their faculty hefty raises. So, now students and parents are forced to drop out of college or take out even heftier amounts of debt to stay in. While faculty, many of which would be considered upper-class or upper-middle class, get raises. Instead of traveling to Wall Street, maybe the Occupy movement should set up operations at our State Universities.

infolit

December 2, 2011 - 1:30 pm EST

You really should try learning something about a topic before using a public forum to speak on it. I am an employee of the UNC system, which is also the system that UNCG is a member of. NO ONE in the system has had a raise in at least three years and there will not be any raises again this year or in the foreseeable future. This is NOT wall street. We are not paid like executives, nor do we get golden parachutes. We are WORKERS that work hard for the little pay that we get and I do not appreciate uninformed citizens such as yourself trying to paint a different picture of the situation simply because it fits your agenda.

Wilhammer

December 2, 2011 - 2:47 pm EST

This economy we got stuck with due to the greed of bankers and politicians has all The People at all the throats.

Damned shame we have to deal with this.

uncgparent

December 2, 2011 - 2:54 pm EST

In opposing this tuition increase, we clearly cannot blame underpaid faculty and staff, who have endured year after year of no raises. As a new NC resident and taxpayer, who has to nonetheless pay out-of-state tuition this year for my son, I want to know when the construction on campus will ever end and cutbacks or freezes will be instituted for athletics. However, no amount of cuts will make up for the Legislature's refusal to fund the UNC system responsibly. If nothing is done to stop these tuition increases, this system will have abandoned its legislative mandate to serve all academically qualified residents and instead become the preserve of the very affluent and, out of charity, a handful of the poor. The Chancellor and the Board of Trustees should be fighting with students and their families to stop these increases and not make excuses for a hostile Legislature's betrayal of a public trust.

Abruti

December 2, 2011 - 3:04 pm EST

"NO ONE in the system has had a raise in at least three years"

You may want to take a little time yourself to study the public records.. There have been raises given in the last 3 years. Not all have received them. But they have been given. Newsflash: We've been in a recession for 3 years!

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 5:05 pm EST

Some people in State government have received raises for promotions and for accepting additional duties during those times.

retiree

December 2, 2011 - 9:01 am EST

Like abruti, I agree with his comments that those in the hallowed walls of academia don't get it. There seems to be a belief in academia, like Congress, that they use baseline budgets rather than to actually reduce budgets (apart from what they had to do this past year with the cut in state funding). My suggestion? Cut out all travel budgets and seminar expenses. Eliminate all car allowances. Eliminate all sabbaticals to write books. Require all professors, including department heads, to teach at least two classes each semester. Eliminate those burdensome non-teaching $100k a year educrats like the one overseeing diversity. Require their professors to use email rather than reply on a support staff member to respond to them (yes, it happens). But the best solution is to have students boycott the university for a term and attend GTCC or other school for a few courses.

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 12:23 pm EST

Why boycott for a term? Why not just transfer to those other schools? Why, because the education from those institutions is not as valuable as one from UNCG.

infolit

December 2, 2011 - 1:32 pm EST

The fact that you specifically single out 'diversity' speaks volumes about your character.

Abruti

December 2, 2011 - 3:06 pm EST

The fact that they want to pay someone over $100,000 to manage diversity (while talking out of the other side of your mouth about salary freezes and layoffs) at the most diverse university in the State system speaks volumes.

uncgparent

December 2, 2011 - 3:24 pm EST

How about athletics and construction contracts? I have been watching UNCG busy renovating and building dorms which charge far more than the brand-new private housing my son is in. Why not let the private market provide housing and why not apply the same "tough-times" thinking to sports teams as you do to academics?

From the News-Record March, 14, 2011 story on cutting athletics at UNCG - "UNCG says the 2010-11 state budget no longer allows for out-of-state students on full athletic scholarships to be classified as instate for tuition purposes, resulting in a loss of $750,000 in scholarship funds." The fact that this preferential treatment ever happened in the first place is an outrage to any in-state non-athlete who couldn't afford to go to UNCG!

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 4:55 pm EST

Residence hall construction is paid for by the students who live there. Nothing discussed in this article or voted on by the Board of Trustees has any impact on nor is it influenced by residence hall construction. The building of the new residence halls is influenced by the desire to raise retention rates and help students graduate on time. Numerous studies have proven that students who live on campus graduate on-time at a higher rate than those who live off campus in private market housing. As a UNCG parent, you should support an effort to graduate more students on time (which means paying less money).

uncgparent

December 2, 2011 - 5:50 pm EST

Why should expensive housing promote retention rates, rather than lessen them due to financial strain on families? For our family, superior and cheaper off-campus housing was a no-brainer; academic progress wasn't an issue at all. I understand that a fountain on campus, renovation of the cafeteria, and a new recreation facility are being or will be built - who's paying for that? And, again, are athletic teams on campus self-supporting? The point is that unless the costs for all this are being absorbed by the university or the state and not passed on to students, they are like overpriced campus housing - unnecessary and even prohibitive to needy students.

balance

December 2, 2011 - 7:22 pm EST

On campus housing increases retention rates. Years of empirical research confirms this. But students don't have to satay in the new facilities. They can stay in the conventional halls.

uncgparent

December 3, 2011 - 3:15 pm EST

Any UNCG housing costs more than new private apartments very close to campus, and the University is in no position to compete with that apparently.

snapandwhistle

December 5, 2011 - 11:33 am EST

Then why is UNCG having to turn away students while outside apartment complexes are running at 60 to 90% capacity? Obviously it is in an extremely good position to compete.

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 10:47 pm EST

Dining had to expand to meet the increasing numbers of students. Dining is paying for that out of what it already charges for meals. My understanding is that the fountain closing was because of the work being done in the dining hall.

As far as the athletics, I do believe they should be more self supporting, but I also don't believe they are worthless. When you and your child were looking for colleges, did you go out and try to find one that did not have athletics?

uncgparent

December 3, 2011 - 3:11 pm EST

Peculiar rejoinder on athletics and the choice of a college, especially given that UNCG is public and tax-supported - why should we have to find another school, if we chose UNCG for many other reasons, particularly academic? I thought that was why students sought degrees to begin with. How about making the fees to support athletics and recreation facilities optional, just as with the on-campus room and board? Most colleges require students and their families to pay to support athletics and recreation whether they wish to or not and that is the case at UNCG.

snapandwhistle

December 5, 2011 - 11:40 am EST

That was the point. College athletics is part of campus life in nearly every institution. If you valued the academics enough to choose UNCG, it is obvious that you accepted enrollment with the knowledge that athletics was included. You can certainly disagree with it, but if you are that put off by athletics, there are colleges and universities out there with good academics and little emphasis on athletics. All of the other 15 institutions have sports, some with much greater athletics fees than UNCG. If you were looking for a balance of academics and campus life, it sounds like you made the best choice.

balance

December 2, 2011 - 7:21 pm EST

You have no clue. UNCG professors don't have people responding to email. You're nuts. We've given up our phones, we can't make more than a few copies on copiers, they took lights out of the drink machines, class sizes have increased, they cut summer pay, the minimum for a class to make has increased, and there is no research assignment unless faculty find funding to pay for it. We've taken millions -- MILLIONS -- in cuts. It is going to take UNC decades to recover from this mess. Legislators could have funded universities this year, but they chose not to. Now chancellors are passing it on to students -- and they aren't hiring faculty to replace the ones who left, so we're all teaching more and advising more dissertations, and directing more student research, and managing more comprehensive exams, ....

Panacea

December 2, 2011 - 9:14 am EST

*sigh* Time for yet another reality check here.

The vast majority of faculty are NOT paid what they should be for their expertise. They don't get "hefty" raises every year; they haven't gotten ANY raise for FOUR years. Only a very small portion of professors make the "big" money; they are usually business professors or research professors who are known money makers in high tech fields. The rest of the faculty don't make anywhere near as much, not much more than a professor in the community college system. Certainly not enough to make them upper middle class. Rather about middle middle class at best.

Travel budgets and seminar expenses have already been cut. I'm not sure what you mean by "car allowances," if you mean use of a state vehicle, since travel budgets have been cut use of state vehicles is usually not necessary because there's no need to go anywhere unless it's in state for a day trip.

Few professors get sabbaticals to write books or do research anymore. And most professors teach not two, but three or four classes a semester depending on the subject. It's not about the number of classes, it's about the number of student contact hours. I teach only one course a semester . . . but it's a 10 credit hour course.

And professors do have and use email extensively.

About the only point I do agree with is cut unnecessary administrative positions, of which the UNC system is overburdened.

The community colleges give a great bang for the buck, but after a couple of years you do need to transfer to finish school elsehwere.

Preserving assistance for needy students is a luxury that will have to go. They will have to get student loans like everyone else, or join the military and come to school on the GI Bill.

retiree

December 2, 2011 - 10:39 am EST

The issue of compensation is not based on the the expertise they possess, but the demand for their expertise. if the demand is low it doesn't make any difference how many degrees they have, or the recency of the degree, or where they obtained the degree.

Having been in the compensation field for quite a few years I recall a librarian who told me she should be earning more money than another opccupation that didn't even require a college degree. She was angry that her job required a master's degree (we didn't require it, but the state did for reimbursement of part of her salary . . .called featherbedding) and she saw other jobs paying more without even as much as a bachelor's degree. I told her we were paying her a market competitive wage and benefits and also that we always had a lot of job applications for every vacancy. While she didn't like my answer, it was the truth. I also told her maybe she should have majored in computer science, and we'd pay her more. She left in a huff and never liked me but should have taken that as a real life point of "education."

Sadly, too many of our young people go to college these days without the slightest inkling of what value their degree will be when they graduate . . .for getting a job and a career. And I'll bet the educational institutions don't fully discuss that factor when talking to students about a selection of their major.

The educational system in our country is similar to our federal government . . .guaranteed to grow at at 6-7% rate every year and not contract at all. Why not? Another issue with education is that they are run by educators, not business people (yes, I know they got the PhD in education administration) . . .all we need to see is how Guilford County Schools have been doing with their school construction programs . . .educators serving as managers of construction . . . kind of like doctors running hospitals. Geez!

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 12:20 pm EST

"The educational system in our country is similar to our federal government . . .guaranteed to grow at at 6-7% rate every year and not contract at all."

You are like a bastion of false information that you put forward as truth because you imagine that it is true. Enrollment has grown because demand for a quality, affordable education has grown. Have you really paid attention to the amounts of the cuts from the University system the last 3 fiscal years? The UNC system and UNCG have made the cuts demanded by the legislature. It has not been comfortable and everyone has sacrificed.

The UNCG Board of Trustees set as its goal to keep faculty salaries at the 80th percentile. You said yourself that the demand for expertise is what should drive salaries. What you seem to be saying is that UNCG should get anybody who can crack open a text book and stand in front of a class rather than try to be competitive and attract the best people they can afford at the 80th percentile.

Your opinion as to the attitudes of those who work in higher education is based on what you "think" rather than what you know.

Abruti

December 2, 2011 - 12:49 pm EST

"The UNCG Board of Trustees set as its goal to keep faculty salaries at the 80th percentile"

Perhaps they need to put this goal on hold until better times. Secondly, 80th percentile of what? Nationally? Public schools or private? I'd venture to say that most North Carolinians are not at the 80th percentile nationally.

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 2:43 pm EST

80 percent of the national average is my understanding.

The_Doctor

December 2, 2011 - 9:42 pm EST

Panacea: I find myself agreeing with you for the third time in as many weeks. This is getting scary! LOL

Mad Dog

December 2, 2011 - 10:31 am EST

"*sigh* Time for yet another reality check here."-Panacea

You need to take your own advice.

All state university professors are state employees so their salaries are public information. In addition, average & minimum salaries are usually posted on each school's website or are available for the asking. And remember, the majority of them only work 9 months. So be sure to compare apples to apples and not oranges and ask how much more income they receive doing research in the summer. And not all of the professors teach 3 or 4 classes. Many department heads may only teach one and Deans probably don't teach any. And there are numerous non-teaching administrators/program directors making high 5 figure and low 6 figure salaries.

So they haven't had a raise in 4 years. So what? Neither have any other state employees and, I will wager, many employees in the private sector as well.

If you are looking for sympathy, you need to look elsewhere.

MD

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 12:31 pm EST

You and retiree come in a tie for the "talking out of both sides of your mouth" award. Who's asking for sympathy? Retiree is making the false statement that budgets (and salaries) have grown and that Universities are sitting pretty while the rest of the world is suffering. Pointing out that State employees, including University faculty and staff, have not received raises in 4 years, is just a direct response to what retiree spewed. The fact is that take home pay for State employees has gone down because of increases in insurance payments.

Nobody wants your sympathy. I'm happy to have a State job in this economy and I enjoy serving the people of North Carolina. My lunch time is over so I'll leave it at that and get back to earning my salary.

Abruti

December 2, 2011 - 12:46 pm EST

The article only points to increases for faculty, not all state employees. I would guess that the faculty, on average, is already making quite a bit more than the rank and file and could well afford to go without a raise until the other state employees join them. That would be best when this economy turns the corner and tax revenues increase. Not on the back of an already suffering student population.

snapandwhistle

December 2, 2011 - 2:42 pm EST

I was addressing retiree's comments. I understood the article.

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