By Molly Ashline, Staff Writer

Published in print Nov.12, 2014

It is a common reference nowadays to hear students comment on the rising cost of tuition.

With all this output of money, there is often a lack of information available to students as to where all the money is going.

The Tuition and Fees Forum held in two sessions in the Cone Ballroom of the EUC on November 3rd attempted to alleviate that issue.

The forum consisted of two portions. The first portion was a presentation on possible tuition and fee increases and the overall breakdown of what that money goes towards, while the second portion was a Q&A session between students and administration.

Chancellor Brady commenced the forum by saying, “This is a very important campus conversation about tuition and fees. For the past two months, two committees made up of faculty, staff, and students have worked extremely hard to better evaluate and understand campus program needs.”

Brady continued, “…and they have looked at a number of factors relevant to the consideration of campus initiated tuition and student fee increases.”

Brady also mentioned the university’s concern over rising student debt, which was echoed in various ways throughout the session by faculty and students.

Charles Maimone, vice chancellor of business affairs at UNCG, who spoke after Brady, gave an overview of UNCG tuition policies as well as a comparative analysis of UNCG’s tuition and fee rates with other universities both on a national and statewide scale.

Maimone also stated that matters of tuition are largely the purview of the board of governors.

Dr. Alan Boyette from the Office of the Provost and Dr. Cheryl Callahan from Student Affairs also gave presentations on proposed tuition expenditures and fee increases, respectively.

Proposed tuition increases – up to a five percent increase over a four year period—could provide more need-based funding, raises for university employees or greater spending on academic advising as a way to stymie student debt. The fee increases that Callahan outlined were modest and could go to a number of sources including the UNC Green Fee and Athletics in order to fund coach health insurance.

Following the formal presentation, the floor was opened up to student questions and concerns.

One student, Toren Washington, stated, “Since when is college a market driven economy model to follow? This is an institution where students and their education should be valued more than their money, and I don’t feel like we should be following a business model. I feel like we should be following a model that values the students and what we can bring to our communities.”

Washington also asked how students could become more informed and more involved in tuition-related matters.

To this inquiry, Maimone responded, “I hope this [the forum] is a start at least, and as far as transparency, what we try to do is provide all that information…in advance of a decision, so this is that opportunity, at least one of them, and I hope that there are more. And then lastly, I would say that this is a matter of planning and making sure that we plan far enough out so that in fact we can have more discussions about these kinds of things as we move forward.”

The presentation given at the Tuition and Fees Forum is available in its entirety on UNCG’s Budget Central Website. Decisions regarding increases in fees and tuition for 2015-2017 are expected by February of 2015.