Students, NAACP oppose tuition hikes
Travis Long – tlong@newsobserver.com
In front of the South Building, Amanda Ellis, a senior at UNC- Chapel Hill, holds an NAACP sign at a rally organized by student groups and the state NAACP.
CHAPEL HILL — Students at UNC-Chapel Hill joined with the NAACP on Wednesday to demand a halt to proposed tuition increases in the UNC system.
About 50 people gathered around the steps of the South Building that houses administrative offices at the center of campus. Students also were scheduled to meet with UNC system President Tom Ross later Wednesday.
Protests are picking up steam before next week’s decision on 2012-13 tuition by the UNC Board of Governors. Tonight, UNC-CH students plan a "teach-in," one of several scheduled at campuses across the state. And on Feb. 10, students will march to the UNC board meeting, where the vote is to take place. Some students from the system’s 16 college campuses are traveling by bus to Chapel Hill for the event.
"We cannot be ignored," Zaina Alsous, a UNC-CH junior from Raleigh, said to cheers from the crowd, "because we must always remind them that this is our university!"
The Rev. Curtis Gatewood, a vice president of North Carolina’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said a net reduction of $482 million in state funding to UNC campuses in the past four years is "a recipe to an inferior education." But the answer is not charging students more, Gatewood said. "This is like allowing bullies to come in and beat up a child’s teacher, take the child’s books and take the child’s lunch money."
UNC leaders say they must increase tuition to help protect the classroom, because state cuts have led to crowding, layoffs and reduced course offerings.
Ross has recommended average in-state undergraduate tuition and fee increases of 8.8 percent systemwide for 2012-13 and 4.2 percent for tuition in 2013-14.
Ross’ proposals are for tuition and fee increases of 9.8 percent at N.C. State University and 9.9 percent at UNC-CH – smaller than what those campus leaders requested.
Laura McCready, a UNC-CH sophomore from Charlotte, said university leaders are forcing students to choose between affordability and quality. "Come on," she told the crowd. "We know that there are better solutions."
McCready described an atmosphere of fear on campus.
"Students are scared that their brothers and sisters will not be able to come here because their families can’t afford it," she said. "Students are scared that they’re graduating into a job market without jobs and they don’t know how they’re going to pay off their debt. Students are scared … that our children won’t receive the public benefits that we are receiving."
Stephanie Gaskill, a graduate student at UNC-CH, said anger is rising.
"Students are fed up," she said. "They’re sick of degrees that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, because they no longer guarantee them jobs. They don’t believe that the value of their education goes up just because the price tag gets bigger."
She called on the UNC board to reject the increases.
"Students are in enough debt already," she said. "Any increase is too much."
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