The UNC challenges

Published May 31, 2016

Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, May 31, 2016.

UNC President Margaret Spellings turned heads last week with the announcement that she’s hired a senior vice president for strategy and policy at $245,000 a year, but a lot is at stake. Our state university needs smart strategy and policy.

The man named to the post is Andrew P. Kelly, director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute. He wrote an article for The New York Times in January headlined, “The problem is that free college isn’t free.” Indirectly refuting a Bernie Sanders campaign promise, he pointed out the obvious: “Free” college “simply shifts costs from students to taxpayers. ... The key question, then, is what happens if public generosity does not keep pace with rising college costs, increases in demand, or both?”

North Carolina faces that question. While college isn’t “free,” by constitutional mandate it’s supposed to be as close to free as “practicable.” And the state Senate is pushing a controversial bill that would cap tuition at five campuses at a bargain-basement $1,000 a year for in-state students and $5,000 for out-of-state students.

Answering his “key question,” Kelly wrote: “Barring a drastic improvement in efficiency, tuition-free colleges won’t have the resources to serve additional students without compromising the quality of their offerings.” The same is true for those setting tuition as low as $1,000 a year.

Public funding for UNC has declined rapidly — by $2,516 per student since 2007-08, according to General Assembly statistics. This has forced an increase in tuition and fees averaging $699 per student, leaving a sizable funding gap. Maintaining quality is a big concern. One way the gap is seen has been in a loss of UNC faculty to other institutions that offer better salaries and benefits.

At a recent forum in Greensboro, Spellings outlined broad goals for the university: maintaining access through low costs, promoting student success, achieving greater efficiency, building economic impact and supporting excellent, diverse institutions. Some of these objectives seem to work against each other, especially if the legislature takes steps to reduce the resources available to pay for higher education.

Spellings, and Kelly, have a big job strategizing around that problem, but they have help. One new organization, called Higher Education Works, lends an independent voice of support for our university system, offering current information and urging the public to contact legislators with concerns.

UNC already has legions of boosters in its corner — and not only alumni but communities that realize the tremendous economic benefit generated by these institutions. Greensboro is doubly blessed with two large campuses.

Our universities conduct research, support industrial innovation and educate the visionaries of tomorrow. The state’s past leaders showed incredible foresight in building a world-class public university system. Yet, there’s no guarantee that it can sustain this excellence into the future without sufficient state support or creative leadership.

The state and country are changing. James Johnson, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, imparted a demography lesson to the Board of Governors Friday. North Carolina is “browning and graying,” he said. Older white residents are being replaced by younger minority residents, many of Hispanic and Asian heritage. Some are poorer — at least for now. The university has an important role to play if this new generation is going to fully participate in an emerging economy where higher education makes the difference between success and failure. So UNC must find the right strategies and policies to meet the critical goals Spellings has set, and the legislature must step up with more support.