UNCG 10 percent tuition fee hike proposal, $660 increase in state, University of NC at Greensboro, Spending like drunken sailors, Out of control expansion

Drive through the campus of UNCG, the University of NC at Greensboro, on any day and you will notice a plethora of Obama stickers. Converse with the faculty and staff and the Obama, left wing support will be obvious. Therefore, what I am about to report will come as no surprise. The same kind of mentality that pervades the Obama camp, permeates UNCG and many other colleges and universities. Spending other people’s money.

Sadly this happens all too often in “institutions of higher learning,” where our young people are supposed to be prepared for life, to manage their own finances.

From the Greensboro News and Record November 16, 2011.

“UNCG proposes 10 percent hike in tuition, fees”

“Tuition would rise 10 percent for UNCG students next year according to a proposal the university’s tuition and fee committee presented Tuesday night to the Student Government Association.

In-state undergraduates would see a $660 increase in their bills next year — an extra $345 for tuition and $315 for fees, bringing total tuition and fees to $6,158.

The increase would generate $7.4 million, with half of it used to offset budget reductions. The rest of the money would be used for need-based financial aid and pay increases for faculty, who have gone without raises in recent years.

UNC leaders are allowing chancellors to propose increases above the 6.5 percent cap to help make up for budget cuts.

The universities’ boards of trustees and the UNC Board of Governors must approve any tuition increases.

The Board of Governors isn’t expected to vote until February but has asked campuses to submit their proposals by early December.

UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady said next year’s proposed increase is a temporary salve.

“That doesn’t restore the $26 million cut that we took at UNCG just this year,” she told students and faculty during the meeting in the Elliott University Center.

The meeting got off to a rocky start, with a group of about a dozen students interrupting it, calling the meeting a “sham.” They recited from slips of paper they held, demanding that there be no hike in tuition.

They also asked that the money UNCG is using to build student housing in the Glenwood neighborhood be used to close the budget gap.

Brady said housing fees will repay the debt on that project.

University police escorted the group from the room.

While the remainder of the meeting was mostly civil, students did ask some pointed questions, such as the amount of Brady’s salary and whether administrators would be willing to take a pay cut.

Brady, who answered that she makes $324,000 annually, said that employees have not been given pay raises in four years.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/11/15/article/uncg_proposes_10_percent_tuitionfees_hike

I am infuriated and insulted on several levels by this move.

• I am a lifelong resident of NC and this reflects poorly on the state.
• Education and influences on young people is one of my concerns. Raising costs by 10 percent in the worst economy in my lifetime is an outrage.
• I began college at UNCG and was on their first wrestling team and the golf team. Unlike Steve Jobs who made a conscious decision to leave a college curriculum and seek knowledge independently, I lucked into computer software classes taught by an IBM employee. I took several more classes at UNCG, other colleges as well as from the IBM Education Center in Washington, DC. I thank God that I was removed from the liberal arts atmosphere at UNCG, even though then they exercised more control over spending.
• I taught college level computer science courses years ago (not at UNCG.) I have insights into the academic  and business worlds.
• I have watched UNCG for years spending like drunken sailors. They seem to be more concerned about building and expansion than education and keeping it affordable for more students. 

The article states:

“The meeting got off to a rocky start, with a group of about a dozen students interrupting it, calling the meeting a “sham.” They recited from slips of paper they held, demanding that there be no hike in tuition.

They also asked that the money UNCG is using to build student housing in the Glenwood neighborhood be used to close the budget gap.

Brady said housing fees will repay the debt on that project.”

The students ask a valid question. “will repay”. When?

I have watched UNCG spend enormous sums on athletic facilities, student housing and generally swallowing up property surrounding the campus, including the Glenwood area.

UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady stated that she makes $324,000 annually and that there have been no pay raises in four years. Where I come from, $324,000 is a lot of pay for poor performance.

Perhaps Chancellor Brady should be removed, with a savings $324,000, along with others responsible for this fiasco, and replaced for a while by a volunteer panel of business people.