Chancellors representing campuses of the UNC System — from Elizabeth City State University to Western Carolina University — met with state lawmakers Wednesday to contest proposed budget cuts of $139 million to the university system.
Chancellor Randy Woodson said the opportunity to appeal to the General Assembly during “Education Day” is a duty for all who value education.
“The whole goal of today is to bring leaders from all campuses together, and we have to walk around the legislature and remind everyone of the importance of higher education and how funding from the state is critical,” Woodson said.
UNC System President Tom Ross has swiftly responded to the proposed budget cuts that Gov. Pat McCrory announced two weeks ago, and visited N.C. State Tuesday during a Faculty Senate meeting to talk about changes in the UNC System, from the new, five-year Strategic Slan to the perceived-threat of cuts in education.
During the first session of “Education Day,” Ross instructed attending chancellors to be polite to the 170 lawmakers who will decide the fate of public funding for higher education.
“We want to be treated fairly. We want to prove that the university is important to the future of this state, and we believe that investments in this university will pay real dividends for the people of North Carolina,” Ross said. “A piece of our message is to remind legislators of what all we have done to become more efficient.”
After a 15 percent decrease to the UNC System budget — $400 million — in 2011, Ross said the system trimmed its fat and surpassed expectations. In the past five years, UNC schools have produced 17 percent more degrees while cutting costs by 12 percent per degree, which comes out to be 17 percent including inflation, according to UNC System COO Charlie Perusse. That equates to a reduction of $10,000 per degree, while boosting degrees conferred system-wide by 8,000.
“It’s important to remind people that you meet with today that we not only have taken significant cuts already — $400 million two years ago, over $1.2 billion in cuts and reversions in the last five years — we’ve taken those and absorbed them, without compromising the quality of education,” Ross said.
Further cuts, however, would undermine the system, said Peaches Gunter Blank, a member of the Board of Governors and former chair of the NCSU Board of Trustees. With the BOG’s Strategic Plan and flexibility vis-à-vis the struggling economy, Blanks the UNC System is ahead of the curve, but not by much.
“We have to put forth the value of education,” Blank said. “When you look at the 220,000 students in our system, it’s very important. You have to have money to run the system. Let’s just take [the example of] research. Money drives, and you can’t educate without dollars.”
Mixed support in the General Assembly
Three Republican lawmakers addressed the chancellors about the gravity of the budget cuts, which ranged from “extreme” to “not severe.”
State Sen. Jeff Tarte (R-41) said he wanted to be the champion of higher education in North Carolina after winning elections in Mecklenburg County last year. As he described it, the university system is “bar-none, unequivocally our greatest asset we have in the state. We have to embrace it, own it and fund it.”
Tarte, who grew up poor and received a Pell Grant to fund his college education, said the UNC System is “under a little bit of an attack, politely described.” During his talk with the chancellors, Tarte recounted the story of his oldest son who started college at the University of Florida and had to drop out due to poor grades but got a second chance in the N.C. Community Colleges and UNC systems, ultimately graduating with honors from Appalachian State and going on to earn his master’s degree at UNC-Chapel Hill.
“The university system didn’t give up on him. We didn’t throw him to the curb. And look how he’s doing now,” Tarte said.
Tarte, who said he was tremendously grateful for the opportunities he received from the government to receive a higher education, said he does not support the idea of impeding students from getting a degree at a four-year institution.
“Every kid who wants the opportunity to go to a four-year university in the state of North Carolina absolutely, unequivocally should never be denied that opportunity,” Tarte said. “That’s our responsibility to preserve that.”
Tarte voted to approve Senate Bill 14 in February, which approved endorsing high-school diplomas as college-bound or vocational-bound.
Tarte said he would never consider closing a campus in the system, which Rep. Tom Apodaca (R-48) echoed later in the day.
“We won’t close any campuses,” Apodaca said. “We are not merging Western and UNC-Asheville. Let’s put that to rest. We have no intent to close campuses at this point.”
Apodaca, co-chairman of the Appropriations on Education/Higher Education subcommittee, said the General Assembly may make minor changes to the governor’s proposed budget, but didn’t say if cuts in the final budget, which may be finalized in June, would increase or decrease.
“You are going to see some areas go up, you’re going to see some areas come down, and you’ll see the out-of-state tuition rates go down. But I will go on record to say that the budget that the governor released is excessive in out-of-state tuition hikes. I think that is something we need to take a hard look at.”
The proposed out-of-state tuition hikes of 12.3 percent — especially in regard to non-resident graduate students — did not receive any support from the speakers of the day. The economic impacts of such cuts would cost more to the universities than the revenue they bring in, Ross said.
Speaker of the House Thom Tillis (R-49) said the proposed cuts are not major compared to previous cuts. Though he said the UNC System is not overfunded, chancellors should do their best to become less dependent on the state.
“If I were a Chancellor, if I could limit what the government does to control the schools to the extent that I can be independent financially, I’ll find a way to get there,” Tillis said. “It’s like everything else — when you get funding from a government agency, there are going to be strings attached regardless. The more independent you are, the more control you’re going to have.”
We want to be treated fairly. We want to prove that the university is important to the future of this state, and we believe that investments in this university will pay real dividends for the people of North Carolina.
– Tom Ross
Sen. Jeff Tarte talks about the value of funding higher education during "Education Day," Wednesday.
