By Maggie Young, Staff Writer

Published in print Mar. 4, 2015

Last Friday, the UNC Board of Governors met at UNC-Charlotte to vote on a miscellany of motions.

Several of the proposed changes incited students from across the state to come and demonstrate their disapproval.

Among the proposals were tuition and fees increases, a new statewide security fee and the termination of three university centers.

In 2013, UNC system President Tom Ross began an evaluation of the system-wide security coordination and student safety.

A year later, Ross presented his evaluation to the board, who decided that because campuses across the system were shifting funds towards security measures to meet federal regulation an annual fee of $30 per student was necessary.

The funds raised would go towards campus-level and system-wide services, campus police salaries, compensation for trained investigators and counseling efforts.

Board member Marty Kotis believes that students should not be required to fund such an endeavor.

“This is a basic service we should be providing our students,” Kotis told his peers on the board. He maintained that students do not pay for air conditioning—another basic service the university provides.

The motion carried and the board moved forward into discussion on tuition increases.

Due to cuts made in previous years to higher education in North Carolina, chancellors from 16 campuses in the UNC system are requesting an increase in tuition rates for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 academic years.

The board has a policy that prohibits annual increases from exceeding 5 percent; however, several institutions will be facing that maximum.

UNC-Greensboro is among those facing the 5 percent increase in the first year.

Over the next two years, UNCG will see tuition rise a total of about 9.2 percent.

The Committee on Budget and Finance pre-approved chancellor proposals for tuition rates for the next two years and on Friday requested that the board approve the proposals as well.

When the movement went to discussion, board member Roger Aiken spoke out against the proposal.

“The present levels of tuition increase that we’ve seen the past few years are just not sustainable,” Aiken argued.

He continued, saying, “The level of debt that [the students] are coming out with is just not sustainable as well.”

Acting as the voice of the students, Alex Parker, the UNC Association of Student Governments Student Body President, reminded the board of how “each dollar is impacting [students across the system.] On their future financial security—their future prospects.”

Vice Chairman Louis Bissette offered an opposing view, saying, “Our chancellors are on the ground…and they have to run their campuses.”

He reminded the board that each university chancellor goes through a thorough process involving faculty, students, alumni and others to adopt a tuition proposal.

He continued by arguing that the majority of the increases will go toward faculty retention.

“There is a balance between low tuition and quality product,” he argued.

Bissette noted that a more sustainable option for increase is preferable, and concluded by stating that the increases will help manage students and faculty. 

However, the increases do not stop there.

Student fees will also be rising over the next two years.

From 2015 to 2017, UNCG will see a $21 increase in athletics fees, a $9 increase in health services fees, a $99 increase in student activities fees and a $23 increase in educational and technology fees.

There will also be a myriad of other “special fee” increases that include studio art majors, art history majors and the nursing PhD program.

As the tuition and fees discussion came to a close, Chairman John Fennebresque addressed the outside audience, saying, “No one likes raising tuition.”

This statement elicited a loud grumble of disapproval from students.

The next item on the agenda related to university centers.

A seven-member working group, chaired by Jim Holmes, was delegated the task of reviewing university centers across the state.

Over the past five months, the group has reviewed 240 centers.

To be sure the value of the centers outweighed the cost of state investments, the group followed a comprehensive three-phase process of review.

Ultimately, the group validated the work of 207 centers and recommended further evaluation of 16.

Nine centers, all of which are focused on coastal and marine research, are under ongoing review for improvement.

Eight centers elected to self-discontinue.

The three centers left are those the group suggested for discontinuation.

These include: the ECU N.C. Center for Biodiversity, NCCU Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change, and UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.

After Holmes gave his report, a student protest began.

Students came with a prepared reading that detailed the UNC system mission statement.

Several students stood to read from a pamphlet that protested the board’s imminent decision.

Eventually, police escorted protestors from the room.

After several minutes of disruption, Fennebresque called for a recess whereupon board members were moved into a small room that did not have the capacity to house an audience.

This did not stop the students from protesting. Their shouts permeated the small room rendering speakers inaudible.

Students repeated such chants as: “No cuts! No fees! Education should be free!”

The congregation of disgruntled students stayed to protest the meeting until its end.

UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate Meriwether Lyman told The Carolinian, “[The Board of Governors] is not interested in representing what the students, the faculty, the workers of the university want.”

Many others had similar complaints.

Casey Aldridge, an UNC-Charlotte student, said about the centers vote, “[The board] already had their minds made up.”

Aldridge asserted that if the board continues to prohibit students from voting on matters that directly impact them then students will continue to disrupt meetings.