Carolina Alumni Review - September/October 2010

YOURS AT CAROLINA

What Counts

‘Low tuition without high quality education is no bar- gain 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 commit-
ment again ensures that all Car-
olina students with financial need
will be held harmless from the lat-
est 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.)

olina’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

Undergraduate Tuition and Fees for 2010-11
at Public Peer Universities*
Change from Change from
University In-state previous year Out-of-state previous year
California-Berkeley $10,938 $2,586 $33,608 $2,586
California-LosAngeles10,781 2,515 33,660 2,725
Florida 5,020 647 27,300 3,556
Illinois-Urbana 13,658 1,130 27,800 1,130
Michigan-Ann Arbor 11,837 178 36,001 1,064
Pittsburgh 14,936 782 24,592 740
Texas-Austin 8,618 441 23,827 1,220
Virginia 10,808 936 33,774 1,902
Washington 8,701 1,009 25,329 962
Wisconsin-Madison 9,050 736 24,300 1,237
Average excluding UNC 10,435 1,096 29,019 1,712
UNC 6,665 1,215 25,280 1,942

* As of July 16, 2010. Source: www.unc.edu/depts/trustees/presentations.html. Data attributed to institutional websites, available reports and information provided by peer institutions. In some cases, figures represent estimates for fall 2010.

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.