What $500 Tuition Could Mean for 3 UNC Campuses

Three campus leaders in the University of North Carolina system have been charged by lawmakers with carrying out a college-affordability experiment that has drawn both praise and criticism for its ambition: $500 tuition per semester for in-state students.

At a time when the average published cost of in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges nationwide is nearing $10,000 annually, many see the measure, dubbed “NC Promise,” as a bold move. Others support the legislation’s stated purpose — keeping a lid on college costs and student debt — but remain skeptical that the legislature has the best interests of the university system at heart. In recent years, UNC leaders have clashed at times with conservative lawmakers keen on shaking up public higher education.

In May, Tom Apodaca, a Republican state senator who retired last month, introduced the bill. Initially it would have lowered tuition to $500 at five UNC campuses. That draft stirred widespread concern because it seemed to single out minority-serving institutions and included no language about additional state money to make up for lost tuition revenue. The loss of tens of millions of dollars could have led to financial turmoil at several universities that were already strapped for cash.

System officials say most of those concerns were mitigated in the final version, which was written into the state budget that Gov. Pat McCrory signed last month.

Starting in the fall of 2018, $500 in-state tuition will go into effect at three campuses — the predominantly white Western Carolina University, the historically black Elizabeth City State University, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a historically American Indian institution — and the state will provide the system with up to $40 million each year to fill the revenue gap. Per-semester tuition for out-of-state students will drop to $2,500, from between $7,000 and $8,000. And new students at other UNC campuses will pay a fixed tuition rate if they graduate within four years.

Leaders of the affected campuses say that the tuition plan has many more pros — first and foremost, making college more affordable — than cons. “We three are ecstatic,” said Robin G. Cummings, Pembroke’s chancellor, of himself and his colleagues. The institutions are geographically spaced out across the state, and lawmakers who backed the bill touted the convenience of $500 public-college tuition within 150 miles for each state resident.

The Chronicle interviewed the three chancellors about their thoughts on $500 tuition and about how they’ll prepare their campuses for the drastic change. Here are some of the takeaways.

The actual cost of a semester at these campuses will not become $500.

The $500 figure does not cover non-tuition expenses like fees, room, and board. At Western Carolina, for instance, an academic year costs around $17,000 for undergraduate students living on campus with a meal plan. While tuition in the fall of 2018 will drop by about 75 percent from its current level, cost of attendance will remain around $14,000, said David O. Belcher, the chancellor, in an email.

Dr. Cummings, who holds an M.D., made a similar point. “I had someone say, So, a student can just walk up and give you a check for $500, and they can go to school at Pembroke?” he said. “I wish. That would be great.”

And though students and their families will pay less to attend Western Carolina, Mr. Belcher said, “the cost of providing an education at WCU will not decrease.”

Since the cost per degree won’t change, Dr. Cummings stressed several times that he sees the plan as an increase in state support, not as a cut to Pembroke’s sticker price. The major change, he said, is that “the state of North Carolina is making an additional investment in our students.”

At least one chancellor was initially concerned that a $500 rate would cheapen degrees from his campus.

When Thomas E.H. Conway Jr., the Elizabeth City State chancellor, first heard about the low-tuition concept, he was skeptical. He wondered whether it “could potentially put a stigma on us as a type of institution that would be seen as less than the value that we think we bring to the table.”

Before the plan was finalized, Mr. Conway said UNC system officials tried to push for a change to the $500 figure. “What we were trying to do was to get some proposals on the table that would accomplish the same thing without putting the institutions in a position of having to publish a $500 tuition,” he said, such as using the extra state money for grants or scholarships.

Most of the adjustments Mr. Conway supported made it into the final legislation, but that one did not. “You don’t always get everything you ask for,” he said. “I really would not characterize it as continuing to have reservations. We’re going to make this work because it’s something we’re going to be living with.”

To deflect the possible stigma at Elizabeth City State, one item on Mr. Conway’s agenda for the next couple of years is “a major marketing campaign” focused on the economic value of a degree from the university.

Enrollment will probably increase at all three institutions.

The chancellors expect that the lower cost will attract a large number of prospective students — both from North Carolina and from just across the state’s borders — who might not otherwise have considered attending the campuses.

That outcome is crucial for Elizabeth City State, whose future was threatened two years ago because of low enrollment. Mr. Conway said the campus could accommodate a student body that’s twice its current size of 1,600 students.

Pembroke currently enrolls 6,400 students and has a student-to-faculty ratio of 15:1. Dr. Cummings said the campus could probably grow to between 8,000 and 8,500 students. One challenge, he said, will be maintaining control of the growth and ensuring that the university doesn’t abandon the more-personal aspects of its education, like small classes. That’s a “tightrope that we’re walking,” he said.

Western Carolina’s enrollment has steadily risen in recent years, by more than 10 percent from the fall of 2011 through last fall. It’s likely that the $500-tuition plan will require greater selectivity in admissions, Mr. Belcher said. He expressed concern that higher admission standards could reduce access.

In a similar vein, critics have argued that a lower tuition rate could reshape the minority-serving missions of Pembroke and Elizabeth City State and push out some of the low-income and first-generation students the universities traditionally serve.

But Mr. Conway pointed out that the final legislation includes a provision directing the UNC system’s governing board to “give due consideration to maintaining the unique historical character of each institution.”

While rapid growth is not a goal for Mr. Belcher, he said he eventually hopes to take advantage of the tuition plan to increase Western Carolina’s capacity, slowly adding to its academic programs and hiring more faculty and staff members. He also expects racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity to increase, as prospective students from poorer rural counties “may for the first time see college within reach.”

Questions surround the financial sustainability of such low tuition. But for now, the outlook seems positive.

Mr. Belcher acknowledged that a future legislature could undo the state’s commitment to offsetting the cost of low tuition at the three campuses. But since the final version of the tuition plan specifically calls for extra funding, he said, lawmakers would have to pass a new bill to repeal that language.

“We have as close to a guarantee as we can expect,” he said.

Despite recent budget cuts to the UNC system, North Carolina lawmakers still provide more money for public higher education than most states do, Dr. Cummings noted. “We’re very much in lockstep with them providing our support,” he said. “And to me, this is simply them saying, We’re willing to go even a step beyond.”

If the plan works well at Pembroke, Western Carolina, and Elizabeth City State, Dr. Cummings said, he believes there will be discussion about expanding it to other UNC campuses.

It’s understandable that there were initial concerns about something as novel as $500 public-college tuition, he said. But after he and his staff studied the bill’s potential effects, “we didn’t see anything wrong with it,” he said. “What’s wrong about reducing the cost of education?”

Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.

Note: This reporter’s parents both work at UNC Pembroke, one of the institutions discussed in this article.