CHAPEL HILL — With three months before the 2006 General Assembly short session begins, the UNC Board of Governors is trying to decide which projects the system will submit to legislators for approval.
Recently, in a work session before the monthly board meeting, members received updates on several projects and their budgets. No decisions were made on the budget appropriations. That is expected to come in April at a board meeting in Greensboro before inauguration ceremonies for UNC’s new president, Erskine Bowles.
In all, seven funding proposals were discussed during the workshop. Some are seeking a change in budget appropriations that were approved during the budget negotiations last year.
Among those is funding for enrollment and financial aid. According to a document used during the workshop, UNC is expecting an additional 7,000 to 8,000 students system-wide. It is estimated that UNC will seek $75 million to $85 million in enrollment growth funding, however final numbers are expected to be presented at the April meeting. Also, need-based financial aid is estimated at $21.1 million.
UNC is also asking for an increase in salaries for faculty members and to move salaries to the 80th percentile of peer institutions. Moving salaries closer to that from other institutions is a goal of the UNC Office of the President, according to the document.
UNC officials had already discussed some of the projects, including the UNC Research Campus at the former Pillowtex plant in Kannapolis. The center is a venture of Dole Foods and Castle & Cooke, Inc., as well as the state of North Carolina and the University of North Carolina. UNC is proposing to seek funding to support programs by UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, UNC-Charlotte, and North Carolina A&T in this project.
UNC is also seeking a change to funding that was included in its budget request last year for a proposed Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering. The center would be a project of NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill. Mann is proposing to create an institute similar to one he funded at the University of Southern California to commercialize intellectual property. Mann is proposing a $100 million endowment for the program with the two schools, with an additional $78.3 million coming from the state.
In 2005, the system’s budget request sought $50 million for the project.
Other projects considered by UNC are funding for a proposed Hickory Center for Engineering Technology and HUB Contractor Business Academies.
Shannon Blosser (sblosser@popecenter.org) is a staff writer with the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill.