UNC System President Peter Hans said he’s initiated an effort to block access to Yik Yak, an anonymous social media app, on campus networks to limit providing a “taxpayer-paid platform for trolling.”

Hans said he wants to curb access to a handful of smaller, local social media platforms because he thinks they can host harmful content like sexual harassment or racism.

“These apps, operating only within a five-mile radius of a school to target their students, are the modern equivalent of scrawling cruel rumors on the bathroom wall but with a much larger audience,” Hans said in remarks to the Board of Governors Friday.

Hans said he hopes this initiative will make students reflect on their social media use and have a healthier relationship with technology.

“I’m under no illusion that knocking these apps off of our IT networks will cause them to simply go away,” Hans said. “Students can — likely will — still use their own data plans or find other workarounds.”

Hans has asked legal and IT teams to create a plan to block campus access to Yik Yak and similar apps like Fizz, Whisper and Sidechat, he said.

After Hans spoke, the Board of Governors approved a 4% increase in NC State’s 2024-25 tuition rates for all nonresident students and resident graduate students. It held tuition flat for resident undergraduate students.

“This marks the eighth-straight year of no tuition increase for residents of the state of North Carolina,” said Randall Ramsey, chair of the board, in his remarks. “This is a very significant milestone and one that helps uphold our constitutional commitment to make higher education affordable for all North Carolinians.”

NC State will use the additional revenue to fund “faculty retention, provide student internships and professional development experiences, and support need-based aid and the Graduate Student Support Plan,” said Board materials. 

Tuition and fees are NC State’s second-largest source of revenue. In the 2024 fiscal year, the category was 24% of NC State’s total budgeted revenue of nearly $1.9 billion.

NC State was one of six universities that requested an increase in the base tuition rate for resident graduate students.

The University was one of seven that requested an increase in the base tuition rate for nonresident undergraduate and graduate students.

The Board also approved fees for the 2024-25 academic year. NC State’s student fees will decrease in the next academic year by $96 because it paid off debt from construction on athletics facilities.

NC State’s base tuition rates for the 2024-25 academic year are below.

• Resident undergraduate: $6,535.00

• Resident graduate: $9,837.00

• Nonresident undergraduate: $30,583.00

• Nonresident graduate: $30,610.00