ECU trustees discuss proposed tuition rates

GREENVILLE, N.C.  —   East Carolina University officials July 12 announced proposals to raise tuition rates for the 2011-12 academic year.

In a conference call with the university’s Board of Trustees, Chancellor Steve Ballard said tuition increases are required to maintain the quality of education in the face of state budget cuts.

The proposals, which did not include any new increase for the 2010-11 year, now go to UNC President Erskine Bowles.

As he explained the proposals to a reporter after the conference call, Ballard said, “Every one of these columns is important to students and their parents because it represents increases. The purpose of asking students to pay a little more is to ensure the quality of their education without drastically increasing classroom size or cuts to the academic core of the university.”

In a letter to UNC system chancellors on Friday, Bowles pointed out that the 2010 General Assembly faced greatly reduced state revenues and thus was forced to make difficult budget cuts, including those to the UNC system. The UNC system’s share of those cuts is $91.5 million, which are on top of the $50.6 million in cuts assigned to the system during the 2009 session. That $50.6 million in cuts included $29.1 million in flexible cuts to be allocated this year.

During the conference call, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Kevin Seitz told the trustees that ECU is prepared to meet its budget reversion, approximately $11 million, scheduled for September.

If Bowles approves the proposals, ECU will begin the rollout of tuition rates for the fall semester.

Total cost of full-time tuition for the last academic year and the next two years are as follows, if the proposed increases are adopted:

2009-10   2010-11    2011-12 (Preliminary)

Undergraduate, N.C. resident    $2,491        $2,881        $3,144
Undergraduate, non-resident    $13,325        $14,955    $14,955
Graduate, N.C. resident        $2,995        $3,130        $3,517
Graduate, non-resident        $13,311        $13,817    $14,204
Brody School of Medicine        $8,213        $9,497        $9,497