CHAPEL HILL (Nov. 25, 2020) – Over the next few months, UNC System officials will consider relaxing their 18% cap on out-of-state admissions at some of the system’s 16 universities.
As the UNC Board of Governors met last week, Temple Sloan Jr., Chair of the board’s Education Planning Committee, reported that three UNC System campuses – N.C. A&T State, Elizabeth City State and NC Central universities – have exceeded the cap for the past two years.
N.C. A&T has long had an exception to the cap for its engineering school, which recruits nationally, and since 2014 has been allowed to increase out-of-state enrollment to 25% of each incoming freshman class.
The Board has also excused Elizabeth City State from penalties for two years for exceeding the cap. When Elizabeth City started offering out-of-state tuition of $2,500 a semester as part of the NC Promise program, it saw out-of-state enrollment jump to 28.5% of its Fall 2018 freshman class. (The UNC School of the Arts is exempt from the cap due its concentration in the arts.)1
At a time when university officials are bracing for dramatic budget cuts as a result of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on state revenues, out-of-state students pay tuition that is often three times – and in some cases five times – that of in-state students.
System President Peter Hans said he wants to re-examine the 18% cap on out-of-state students “to strengthen our HBCUs without turning away qualified North Carolinians.”
Board member Marty Kotis objected, though, saying the state’s constitutional mandate to offer higher education for “as far as practicable, free of expense” is limited to the people of North Carolina.2
“That is to the people of the state, not to the people of other states,” Kotis said.
“The state taxpayers continue to be very generous in their support of their university, and that is because they feel it’s their university and when their children apply to go to the school, that child will have a spot,” he said.
Past proposals to increase the cap tried to address such displacement worries by allowing enrollment of the same number of in-state students, but raising total enrollment and admitting more out-of-state students so that their percentage rises over time.
BUT BOARD CHAIR Randy Ramsey and member Jim Holmes contended that one size doesn’t fit all.
“We do not want to erode the ability of North Carolinians to be able to attend our universities,” said Ramsey. Yet if there are not enough North Carolinians to fill available slots, he said, “It is certainly in the interest of the university to allow some flexibility here.”
“We have to fix this,” Ramsey said. “If we have rules, we should bring forth waivers or we should change the rules.”
Holmes noted that chancellors contend out-of-state students add diversity and enrich the college experience for native North Carolinians.
The origins and rationale for the 18% cap, first implemented in 1986, are murky.3 Board member David Powers noted that the board has spent hours debating the cap during the nine years he’s been a member.
“We’ve talked about this issue a lot in the last nine years – and haven’t done anything about it yet,” Powers said. “We need to fix this problem.”
The board voted overwhelmingly to suspend financial penalties against the three institutions while it reassesses the cap during the first quarter of 2021.
This idea is well worth consideration, not solely for the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, but for other campuses as well.
Other states, such as our neighbors in South Carolina, are much more flexible about out-of-state students. They use incentives such as in-state tuition to help attract talented scholars. As long as we do not deny qualified in-state students a place in our system, out-of-state students could add real value and help financially.
Noteworthy business leaders like Hugh McColl and Paul Rizzo came to North Carolina as students from outside the state. A diverse student body helps keep North Carolina’s own best students here as well, strengthening both the UNC System and the State of North Carolina.
1 https://journalnow.com/townnews/university/the-syllabus-some-news-about-north-carolina-s-out-of-state-enrollment-cap/article_b797101b-d950-522c-b2c1-a5f97d0417d2.html.
2 https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Constitution/NCConstitution.html, Article IX, Section 9: “The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.”
3 https://www.wral.com/cap-on-out-of-state-students-costs-unc-millions/15733895/.
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