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Trustees Vote to Take Tuition, Fees Up Another Notch

Against a backdrop of some 200 protesting students, the UNC Board of Trustees in January approved tuition increases of $250 for North Carolinians and $1,250 for out-of-state students for the 2007-08 academic year.

The increase, approved by the UNC System Board of Governors in February, primarily will support faculty salaries.

Members of the Board of Trustees told the students, some of whom lent a circus atmosphere by attending in costumes intended to mock what they believe is UNC’s excessive cost, that they were trying to ensure they got the education for which they came to Chapel Hill – and that tuition at Carolina has gone up in recent years much less than at comparable public universities.

It is the fifth year of increases in the past six.

The trustees also agreed to raise some of the fees students pay by a total of $56 per year.

Total tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates next fall will be $5,339, up from the current $5,033, a 6.3 percent increase. The increase is under the four-year, 6.5 percent annual cap that was put in place in October by the Board of Governors for in-state tuition and general fee increases. Out-of-state tuition and fees will be $20,987, up from $19,681, an increase of 6.7 percent.

The trustees also approved a $500 tuition increase for graduate students.

The University dropped a plan, floated late last year by Chancellor James Moeser, to raise out-of-state tuition by $4,000 for incoming 2007 freshmen and guarantee them four years without another increase.

The most recent tuition increase came a year ago, when the Board of Governors approved an increase of $1,100 a year for out-of-state undergraduates and $250 for in-state undergraduates.

The 6.3 percent increase for North Carolina residents represents a small slowing of increases when compared with the past four years, in which the increases were 6, 9, 4 and 9 percent.

In the two years before 2002-03, these costs rose more sharply. In-state tuition and fees jumped 21 percent in 2000-01 and 18 percent in 2001-02; out-of-state costs went up 12 percent and 14 percent in each of those periods.

The University will set aside 35 percent of the increase to cover the higher cost of providing financial aid to students who qualify for it.


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