FROM THE HILL
Trustees 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 students 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 a
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.
THE NEWS & OBSERVER/HARRY LYNCH
As other trustees listen, Karol Mason ’ 79, chair of the trustees’ audit and finance committee, clari-fies a detail during a discussion of proposed tuition rate increases. About 200 students came out
to protest, some in costume.
Morehead Has $100 Million Gift, And Uncle Mot Gets a Partner
The Morehead Scholars Program, for to an undergraduate scholarship program. joint venture of FMC and Tenneco (now
56 years the most prestigious entity “One of our long-term strategic goals is Texas Petrochemicals Corp.), according to a
associated with the University, is to increase the number of Morehead “who’s who” listing on a Web site,
now the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program Scholars to at least 2 percent of the under- www.houstonhistory.com. In 1964, he
— the result of a $100 million gift that will graduate student body,” said Lucy Hanes became a vice president of Conoco in
greatly expand what the program can do Chatham of Elkin, chair of the Morehead charge of its chemical operations, where he
for UNC’s academic elite. Foundation, in a statement. “The Cain built the business from $25 million in sales
The gift of the Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation gift allows us to accelerate that to $600 million, the Web site said.
Foundation of Texas will enable the More- plan and to take a quantum leap forward in Morehead was involved in the discovery
head Foundation, which currently awards our recruitment and support of promising of calcium carbide while a student at UNC,
about 50 scholarships a year, to grow that young leaders.” which led to the founding of Union Car-number and expand summer enrichment Like the program’s founder and original bide. He built the building that houses the
programs for the scholars. It is by far the benefactor, John Motley Morehead III (class University’s planetarium and bears his name.
largest gift in the University’s history. of 1891), Gordon Cain was a chemist. A It opened in 1949, and the first undergradu-
The Morehead Foundation — now the decorated World War II veteran who died ate nonathletic merit scholarship program in
Morehead-Cain Foundation — believes the in 2002, Cain went to Houston in 1955 to
contribution is one of the largest gifts ever help organize Petro Tex Chemical Co., a Morehead continued on page
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