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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Students at North Carolina's public universities will see tuition and fees rise by an average of $266 next year and another $241 the following year after the state governing board ended a one-year tuition freeze on Friday.
The governing board of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system approved requests by schools to raise the core cost of attendance facing in-state undergraduates by an average 4.3 percent for the academic year starting in August and another 3.7 percent in the 2016-17 school year.
The North Carolina School of the Arts will remain the costliest campus in the state, with tuition and fees totaling 8,500 next year. UNC-Chapel Hill will cost undergraduate North Carolina residents $8,334 next fall, while tuition and fees at North Carolina State University rise to $8,407.
The cheapest campus will be Elizabeth City State University, which will raise tuition and fees next fall to $4,656 for North Carolina undergraduates.
The university system's board divided 18-9 on raising costs, an unusual divide for a body that typically makes public decisions unanimously.
While the state's small and mid-sized campuses are hurting, so are the families of students trying to earn a college education, board member Roger Aikman said.
"The people I work with and the people who are my friends who are putting their children through college right now, and the amount of debt they're coming out with, it's just not sustainable," he said.
UNC campuses have increased average tuition by about 50 percent since 2007-08, before the national recession pushed state lawmakers into sharper cuts in taxpayer funding. Yet the state universities remain among the lowest-cost in the country
Outgoing UNC System President Tom Ross said he supported the tuition increases, which he said would amount to less than $50 million, or less than 2 percent of the system's state appropriation. The money is needed to retain staff from professors to accountants who are leaving for better pay elsewhere, he said.
"It's not a huge amount of money, but it's money that will matter particularly in compensation for faculty and staff," Ross said. "I think this is a great public university and it needs to remain a great public university and if it's going to, you have to remain competitive."
Gov. Pat McCrory has asked for universities to draw up budgets showing what would happen if their budgets were cut by 2 percent, Ross said. If legislators approve cuts of that size, universities are doing no more than treading water for this year even with the increases approved Friday, Ross said.
The university board approved raising student fees paying for campus athletics, health services, student activities and technology by an average 5 percent for the next academic year and 3.3 percent for 2016-17. Governors also approved a new $30 fee for increased security costs.
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Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio
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