Where's All the Money Going?

A cry of dismay is echoing in the fluorescent tiled hallways of UNCW campus, chorusing, “Where is all the money going?” The announcement regarding the increase in tuition for the University of North Carolina school system came in February as a means to offset the effects of the reduced budget that public universities were allotted for this fiscal year. Students and faculty alike are downtrodden; there is less money for classes, teacher salaries and even supplies and the effects are quite noticeable.

Different channels contribute to UNCW revenue, with 31% of the total revenue coming from the state, 31% from student tuition and fees, 18% from grants and contracts, 14% from sales and services, and a small percent from investments, additions to endowments and other revenues. The portion of the budget coming from the state is nearly $90 million and dropping. Before the reduction, UNCW was receiving roughly $105 million in support from the state, and the effects of losing the additional $16 million is already taking its toll on smaller departments. Statewide, there has been a loss of $400 million, according to UNC system President Thomas Ross.

“We’re going to generate $6.5 million from the tuition increase, and 25% of that is going to financial aid, with the remainder to go back into academic programs,” said Charles Maimone, Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs.
Departments in the College of Arts and Sciences still seem to be reeling from the blow. With enrollment for next year’s classes coming up, there is a lot of pressure on faculty to keep open as many courses as they can while keeping down class sizes and without affecting the quality of the teaching – a mighty task to undertake when given smaller funds to do it with.
What do these effects look like? To put it simply, there is $7 million less for instruction, about $2 million less for academic support, and over $1 million taken from the library. As a result, there are 80 less faculty positions, 558 fewer course sections and 16,069 fewer seats in classrooms.

Over in the Environmental Studies department, a department that has grown 170% in the past five years, faculty has had to cut way back to avoid having to dip into their trust fund, donated by private individuals, to foot the bill for day to day supplies. Senior staff members no longer present their research findings in lectures or meetings because they give those opportunities and funds to travel to junior professors who need the opportunities to advance.

“Our priority for our department budget is teaching and academic expenses first,” said Professor Jack Hall, Department Chair of the Environmental Studies department. “When your major numbers are growing rapidly and the ability to teach is declining- okay, we got a gap. It gets to the point where, plain and simple, students can’t get the classes they need which ultimately means they can’t graduate on time.” 

Students and faculty alike are worried about the future of public education; for the past four years, the state has decided to cut the education budget to offset the side effects of the economic recession. To cushion the blow felt by students, UNCW faculty has done everything in its power to keep classes at the current levels. The Communication Studies Department has thus far gone relatively unscathed. As Richard Olsen, Chair of the Communication Studies Department, said, “Years ago, we made a commitment to have some classes get very big so others could remain smaller.  So far, we have not had to cut our classes due to budgets.  However, we are at a point now that if our part-time budget gets cut then it will require changes in classes we can offer.  They are a big part of what we do, too.”

Despite their best efforts, UNCW faculty and administration has had to cut out entire courses, sections of courses and other programs and opportunities for students. For Donald Bushman, Chair of the English Department, his worries lie not in the present, but the future. Due to the lack of funds, courses English majors are required to take are unavailable and nonexistent because there was no teacher or classroom available.

“People seem to be attributing [canceled classes] to students taking fewer hours because of the rising tuition and they just can’t get into the classes they need. It makes it hard for us to plan for the upcoming semester,” said Bushman.
The Environmental Studies department is very shaken by this troubling effect. During the enrollment period for the current spring semester, after three days all but three courses were full and many students sat on the waitlist, hoping against all odds that a space would open up for them.

“I was getting emails from desperate students dying to get into several classes they needed to graduate this May and I couldn’t do anything to help,” said Hall. “We fill classes to the capacity of the room, to fire code, but we can’t do anything else. There’s no money for more classes or teachers.”

While department chairs of UNCW are doing their best to save the quality and accessibility of classes for students, they are also doing their best to minimize the effect the funding reduction will have on their salaries, promotion opportunities, research opportunities and tenure.

“We had to cut way back on travel and things like that from department funds. We try to give faculty coming up for tenure and junior faculty support for their travel but senior faculty, like myself for example, haven’t taken travel money from the department in over five years,” said Hall. “It’s just not fair. Professors don’t get to go to meetings and give talks about their research unless it’s out of their own pocket.”

Despite the faculty’s best efforts to keep money in academics to support classes and teacher availability, enrollment is increasingly becoming a rat race for credit hours.

“The classes I need for basic studies, they were always full, even on the first day I was able to register. I know I definitely won’t be graduating in four years, there’s no way,” said UNCW sophomore Abbey Lowery.
As students swallow the news that their cost of tuition will be going up by $527, talk has turned to what the future holds. UNCW is a booming school and people want to attend here, so this year’s tuition hike will have less of an effect on UNCW than at other smaller campuses. If more tuition increases come this way, students will be hard put to shoulder the expenses.
“While State appropriations must remain the University of the People’s primary source of support for academic programs, the second step we must take is to find new ways to help finance our programs and operations,” said Ross. “In part, that will require that we place greater emphasis on private fundraising. It may also require that we alter the methods by which new dollars and budget reductions are allocated.”

However, not everyone is pessimistic about future funding for education. “I’m convinced that state appropriations aren’t increasing, we’ll be fortunate if we remain flat. Remaining flat is actually a cut, things get more expensive and you lose buying power every year,” said Maimone.

As the UNCW student body keeps an ear out for any word on future tuition raises, one thing is certain: students – expect to be in school longer and parents – expect to pay more every year.