The Tuition Review Committee Advisory, a group of N.C . State students and administrators who meet yearly to discuss the upcoming academic year’s tuition, officially sent their proposal to Chancellor Randy Woodson for further examination.
According to Chandler Thompson, student body president and voting member on the Tuition Review Committee Advisory, this year’s proposal is for an increase of $330 for in-state students and $600 for out-of-state students.
According to Patrick Devore , a senior in meteorology and chair of the Student Senate Tuition and Fees Committee, his committee—who first made a recommendation to TRAC —intended their suggestion to be an explanation of how students would best like the tuition increases to be handled if they are absolutely necessary.
“Resolution 51 was the resolution the Student Senate passed pertaining to tuition. This bill states that the students don’t want to see a tuition increase—they never do,” Devore said. “It goes on to state that should the tuition committee see the need for tuition increases, it should make them as small as possible and help offset [the increases] as much as possible by putting money from the increase back into financial aid.”
While Resolution 51 did not offer a concrete solution like that of TRAC’s recommendation, Devore hopes it will serve as a guide for the University’s future.
“This year’s bill is more of a guiding recommendation of what students want to happen and what they want to see, and what input we can provide on things going forward—not just this year, but also in years down the road,” Devore said.
According to Devore , TRAC made their decision Monday, and their recommendation now awaits Woodson, who will decide if the recommendation is appropriate. He will make changes if he deems them necessary. Woodson’s recommendation will then be forwarded to the University’s Board of Trustees. The board will study the recommendation, and will then send their own recommendation to the UNC System’s Board of Governors. Once the BOG has made a decision regarding the tuition increase, their recommendation will be sent to the General Assembly for a final decision.
“Pending any input from outside sources—General Assembly, Board of Governors, etc.—that $330 is the recommendation from this committee, and will move forward at $330 pending any changes by the Chancellor,” Devore said.
However, Devore said it’s important to note that at any moment during this process, the General Assembly has the power to make and enforce its own changes—as was seen two years ago when this process was interrupted by the General Assembly’s mandated $750 increase across the UNC System.
“Whatever comes out of this committee is pretty much what happens, although there may be subtle changes in the distribution of the money,” Devore said. “The $330 recommendation—along with the $600 for out-of-state students—was made with it going to four different areas: financial aid, quality and accessibility, the Graduate Student Support Plan and Faculty Promotional Funds. At times those four percentages have changed slightly. Those are the only tweaks that really happen, but otherwise that amount stays pretty constant.”
According to Devore , the current distribution agreement is for 35 percent of the tuition increase to go towards Financial Aid and Support for students, 52 percent towards increasing quality and accessibility of services offered at the University, 8.7% (about $1,000,000) towards the Graduate Student Support Plan, and 4.3% (a $500,000 preset amount) saved for Faculty Promotional Funds.
Although it is a small percentage of the increase, Devore said the money meant for faculty pay increases, which he said was actually put back into financial aid last year, is not wholly under University control.
“The only thing the promotional funds are used for are to give promotional increases to those people who have to have them by state law, through state-mandated requirements. It’s not for merit bases. It’s controlled by the University to a degree, but they are not able to give as many raises as they want. They’re not able to say, ‘Oh, you got 85 percent positive responses in your ClassEval , here’s x amount of dollars,'” Devore said. “It’s more like saying, ‘You’ve been here for x amount of years, you have to have this much of an increase.'”
But despite these proposed increases, Devore said past increases have not affected University enrollment, and said he does not expect this one will deter future students from coming to N.C . State.
“It still hasn’t affected enrollment much. We’re still one of the cheapest schools in the nation in terms of bang for your buck. We’re still one of the cheapest out-of-state schools in the nation. We had a record number of applications last year, even though we had an increase, so we’re still growing as a university.”
At the same time, Devore said the University is still in the very early stages of this process.
“There’s a lot of time left for these decisions,” Devore said. “People are talking now about things that won’t be decided upon until April or May of next year.”
