Citizens For Higher Education
2006 Legislature Is Generous To UNC
The 2006 session of the General Assembly that adjourned July 28 was one of the most productive in recent memory for the University of North Carolina and for UNC-Chapel Hill. UNC President Erskine Bowles described the 2006-07 budget as “absolutely extraordinary” for the university. Highlights of the session include:
- Funds for enrollment growth are now part of the state’s “continuation” budget, removing uncertainty over whether the state will pay for positions based on enrollment as part of its “expansion” budget each year.
- $90.6 million to provide a 6% raise to faculty at UNC campuses.
- $78.99 million for enrollment growth to add 7,110 students system-wide.
- $21.6 million to provide additional need-based aid for 34,930 students system-wide who are receiving aid, and to add 1,730 students this fall.
- $5 million for a new system-wide reserve to recruit and retain faculty.
- $28.4 million for planning of a Genomics Science Building at UNC-Chapel Hill. Total projected cost: $145 million.
- $3 million for a UNC Hospitals Master Plan.
- $7 million to plan expansion of the UNC-CH School of Dentistry and to study a new dental school at East Carolina University.
- $1.3 million in new scholarship loans system-wide for prospective teachers, with a concentration in science and mathematics.
- $1.2 million to provide scholarship loans system-wide for nursing faculty.
- $2.5 million for the UNC-CH School of Medicine to speed development of new drugs and therapies and their applications in clinical settings.
- $1 million for Family House at UNC Hospitals for housing of critically ill patients. Family House has raised $4.3 million of $6.3 million needed.
- $500,000 for UNC-Chapel Hill’s DESTINY Traveling Science Lab.
- $750,000 in operating funds for Judicial College at School of Government.
- A new state income-tax deduction for those who donate to North Carolina’s 529 college savings programs. Starting in 2007, the deduction will amount to as much as $2,000 for an individual or $4,000 for a couple.
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Our University is one of our state's most important resources, with growing financial needs. Yet the sources of UNC’s funding are in constant legislative debate and under growing uncertainty.
That’s why, as UNC alumni, we must speak with one, loud voice for Carolina.
Citizens for Higher Education (CHE) is a bipartisan Political Action Committee, committed to creating a proactive voice to address the public, legislative, and funding issues affecting North Carolina’s proud higher education University System.
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