WHAT IS CITIZENS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION?
Citizens for Higher Education works to build political support for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the state’s other research universities. We aim to help the university:
- Address the challenge of competition for funds;
- Recruit and retain a world-class faculty;
- Attract the best and brightest students; and
- Enhance cutting-edge research that is critical to the state economy.
We are a political-action committee that backs state candidates who share our goals. We also take positions on issues to help the university. Our positions have always been consistent with those of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.
Members pay dues of $2,500 a year to help. We also welcome junior members at reduced rates: $1,000 a year for members age 30 to 39, and $500 a year for those under 30. To become a member, click here or call 919-510-9240. To sign up for e-mail updates, click here.
(March 21, 2007) Citizens for Higher Education is a group that exercises its First Amendment rights to free speech and to petition the government. Though its members are generally supporters of UNC-Chapel Hill, the group does work that benefits all 16 UNC campuses. Supporters of other campuses are free to organize similar efforts – and have. It would be ironic for any group on a university campus to oppose the exercise of free speech. Submitted by Site Admin on Wed, 2007-03-21 22:02.
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(Feb. 22, 2007) Administrators, editorial writers and parents are all wringing their hands these days over rising university tuition. But for public universities, the fact is that unless the state legislature does its part to pay for higher education, it adds to pressure on tuition. The public university enjoys a proud tradition in North Carolina. Through much of its history, the state has supported its universities. Spending on state universities in North Carolina has grown from $840 million to $2.1 billion since 1985. Submitted by Site Admin on Thu, 2007-02-22 16:43.
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(Nov. 20, 2006) Faculty are a university's greatest asset. Faculty recruitment and retention are critical to building the work force that is essential to North Carolina's success in a global economy. Yet average faculty salaries at UNC-Chapel Hill rank at the 48th percentile when compared with the university's peer institutions. Among faculty who left the College of Arts and Sciences last year, the average salary gain was 51 percent. An associate professor of chemistry went from a salary of $74,500 at UNC to $175,000 at Boston College. An associate professor of economics went from $90,900 at Chapel Hill to $145,000 at the University of Kansas. Talk about economics lessons... Submitted by Site Admin on Thu, 2006-11-30 00:32.
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(Raleigh) News & Observer Editorial: Published: Nov 08, 2006 Paying, playing A political action committee of UNC-Chapel Hill boosters insults the parent university system by playing big-money politics. Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system, isn't a fellow one would think of as naive. He was the White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, after all, and played hardball with a Republican Congress. But if Bowles thinks the big-money crowd -- behind a UNC-Chapel Hill political action committee that has given out hundreds of thousands of dollars to North Carolina politicians -- has no back-door intentions, he's wrong. Submitted by Site Admin on Thu, 2006-11-30 00:28.
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Excerpts from Address by UNC President Erskine Bowles
University Day Convocation
October 12, 2006 I love what this University stands for and, particularly, what this campus stands for. It is proudly a public university and it is – this campus is – a university of the people. Carolina stands for access. We believe to our very soul in affordability. It’s what we are. I spent much of 2005 working for the United Nations coordinating the global response to the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. … Traveling throughout Asia showed me that … if we don’t wake up and get more of our own people better educated, we are going to be a second-rate power in America and here in North Carolina before we know it. I’m not talking about in 50 years. I’m talking about in my lifetime. I’m talking about in your lifetime. Submitted by Site Admin on Thu, 2006-11-30 00:12.
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(Sept. 19, 2006) Politicians love to say we need a highly educated work force to compete in the global economy of the 21st century. But if we are serious about competing with brilliant minds not only in California and Massachusetts, but in India, Singapore, Malaysia and China, we must recognize that the nucleus of that highly trained work force is a well-paid university faculty that engages students and launches the springboards of their minds. Submitted by Site Admin on Wed, 2006-11-29 23:55.
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(Sept. 15, 2006) Editorial writers like to criticize a law state legislators approved last year that allows scholarships for out-of-state students at UNC to be paid for at in-state tuition rates. Taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize out-of-state students, they argue. But what the editorialists ignore is that the new scholarship rule makes North Carolina – and especially UNC-Chapel Hill – a net importer of talent. That’s why Citizens for Higher Education supported the new policy, and it’s why legislative leaders left it in place this year. Submitted by Site Admin on Wed, 2006-11-29 23:45.
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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.
Join Us!
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.
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