What Counts

Posted on Sept. 10, 2010

“Low tuition without high quality education is no bargain for anyone.” That was the perspective that UNC System President Erskine Bowles ’67 shared in July with the UNC System Board of Governors when he urged approval of additional tuition increases. With a second straight year of significant cuts in state appropriations, Bowles observed that, without more tuition revenue, it would be impossible for campuses to absorb additional cuts without damaging the classroom experience.

Reflecting the conscience of Carolina, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp ’86 and Provost Bruce Carney, with full support from UNC’s Board of Trustees, directed that 38 percent of these additional tuition revenues be devoted to need-based financial aid — the highest percentage ever. This commitment again ensures that all Carolina students with financial need will be held harmless from the latest tuition increase. Carolina also will maintain our 2-to-1 ratio of grants to loan/work study for undergraduates. (The national average is nearly the reverse — $1 of grants to $2 of loans.)

No one likes to see tuition continue to rise. But, as the accompanying chart reflects, Carolina remains what Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has cited for nine consecutive years as the best buy among the nation’s top 100 public university campuses. For the 29 percent of UNC seniors who graduated in 2009 with debt, their debt averaged slightly more than $14,000; the national average for four-year public institutions is more than $20,000.

We also should be proud that among the entering first-year class of students are nearly 12 percent who are Carolina Covenant students. (There’s no special application process for the Covenant program; eligible students are identified from the standard forms that all financial aid applicants submit. The Review detailed this program in March/April 2006; for more, see alumni.unc.edu/admissions.)

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Beginning in the 19th century, before the GAA had a staff, alumni maintained records of former students. Starting with bits of paper and index cards, these records grew so that when Carolina’s first full-time alumni secretary, Dan Grant ’21, and his successor, J. Maryon “Spike” Saunders ’25, and their colleagues took responsibility for these records, they were able to convert them to addressograph plates. Along the way, alumni volunteers and GAA staff assembled and maintained historic data that remain of great value. This was vital when UNC — prompted by generous funding from alumni led by Bob Eaves ’58, Sherwood Smith ’56 and Charles Winston ’53 — launched plans for the Carolina Alumni Memorial in Memory of Those Lost in Military Service. The memorial, including a bronze Book of Names adjacent to Memorial Hall, was dedicated in April 2007.

With the relaunch of the GAA’s website in July, detailed information is available online for each of the 713 alumni who died in combat, beginning with the Civil War through Iraq and Afghanistan. The GAA’s veteran alumni records staff (Joan Pendergraph has worked in alumni records for nearly 30 years) and Review Editor Regina Oliver ’75 led this effort. This special report, at alumni.unc.edu/veterans, includes a link to individual pages for each of the 713 alumni. Additional information, including photos, are welcomed at any time to add to this report; look for the link at each entry to submit material.

Yours at Carolina,

 

 

 

Douglas S. Dibbert ’70

doug_dibbert@unc.edu

 

 

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