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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 $2,000 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.
The News & Observer
January 4, 2012
BY JANE STANCILL At a time when hefty tuition increases are on the table, UNC-Chapel Hill is once again at the top of a ranking of best values in public higher education. For the 11th straight year, UNC-CH is the nation's No. 1 best buy, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. UNC-CH was rated as the best value for both in-state and out-of-state students. Submitted by Site Admin on Wed, 2012-01-04 11:48.
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The News & Observer
December 23, 2011
BY JAY PRICE
CHAPEL HILL -- An HIV discovery from researchers led by a UNC-Chapel Hill scientist is the biggest scientific breakthrough of 2011, according to the prestigious journal Science. The study found that early treatment with anti-retroviral drugs sharply cut the risk that infected patients will transmit HIV, which is the virus that causes AIDS. That finding could help slow the spread of the disease, perhaps dramatically.... Submitted by Site Admin on Fri, 2011-12-23 12:06.
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WRAL-TV
October 7, 2011
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors began discussions Friday about how much to charge for tuition in the 2012-13 school year and beyond. Although no formal decisions were made, the board and the leaders of the 16 UNC university campuses agreed they would likely have to pass on more of their costs to students. "If the state is not able to fund higher education the way they have in the past, we are going to look at the balance between state funding and student funding," said Randy Woodson, chancellor of North Carolina State University. His counterpart at UNC-Chapel Hill agreed. "While tuition is a last resort for us, we are to the point where we are going to have to talk about using tuition to help Carolina maintain the quality that we've had for all these years," Chancellor Holden Thorp said. Click here to read more.
The News & Observer
October 7, 2011
BY JANE STANCILL GREENSBORO -- Tom Ross was sworn in Thursday as UNC system president, during a ceremony of pomp and music tempered with the awareness that the higher education landscape has shifted. At an inauguration at N.C. A&T State University in Ross' hometown of Greensboro, the new president struck a determined and optimistic tone, despite the reality of dwindling public dollars and bigger challenges for education as the world catches up to the United States. The university system has a distinguished past, Ross said, but people are afraid for its future and anxious about North Carolina's horizon. "We are in an economic and social malaise and fear we may never come out of it," he said in his inaugural address. "We have heard the words 'the new normal' so often we sometimes believe that where we are right now is where we will stay. Well, I don't buy it. I don't buy it. It doesn't have to be that way. This is our time, and what we do with it is up to us." Click here to read more.
The News & Observer
October 4, 2011
BY JANE STANCILL Tom Ross has been on the job for nine months as president of the UNC system, but the formal celebration of the Ross era happens Thursday in his hometown of Greensboro. In January, Ross took the helm of the university system at an unenviable time. Talk of budget cuts consumed the new president from the minute he was handed the keys. By summer, a battered economy and a budget crisis led lawmakers to slash state funding by $414 million for the system's campuses, an overall reduction of 15.6 percent. The cuts varied by campus, with UNC-Chapel Hill taking the biggest hit at 17.9 percent. A recent report detailed the impact of the reductions, from larger classes to reduced course offerings to trimmed library services. The system has let go just over 3,000 employees, mostly part-time workers. Nearly 1,500 vacant jobs also were eliminated. Last year, the total UNC workforce was 47,000. Despite the bloodletting, Ross has repeatedly said he won't whine about the cuts. It is the university system's duty to provide quality education to the sons and daughters of North Carolina, he said, no matter the economic situation. Click here to read more. Submitted by Site Admin on Tue, 2011-10-04 11:23.
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The News & Observer
September 24, 2011
BY LANA DOUGLAS - STAFF WRITER CHAPEL HILL -- Jacob Pinto had a full ride to UNC-Chapel Hill, until he lost his scholarships and grants this year because his parents made more money and the state cut funding to UNC-CH.... State grant funding was cut 20 percent this year, Shirley Ort, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid, told the UNC-CH board of trustees this week. In the future, more students will need to borrow money, and they will need to borrow more than they have in previous years, she said. UNC-CH prevented the cuts from affecting most students by using about $4 million from a reserve fund to offset them, according to Ort. However, with the elimination of federal summer Pell grants in 2012 and possible changes in how the state distributes grant funding next year, UNC-CH could lose a total of $8.4 million in grants next year. Click here to read more.
The (Wilmington) StarNews
Editorial
September 24, 2011 State lawmakers can spin it any way they like, but the this year's budget cuts to our public universities will have significant and likely lasting effects. Throughout the University of North Carolina system, 3,000 people lost their jobs – that's 3,000 more people who no longer had a salary from which they paid taxes, home mortgages and covered their bills. Another 1,500 vacant jobs were eliminated, leaving more work for the employees who remain. Meanwhile, students at our flagship school, UNC-Chapel Hill, are living with the results of an $80.7 million budget cut: fewer classes, larger classes, skimpier maintenance and the double-whammy prospect of higher tuition coupled with less money for financial aid.... The university administration, seeking to prevent further bleeding, is considering yet another tuition increase, even as financial aid becomes less available. Students and their families, many of them also struggling as a result of an anemic economy, are being forced to pick up a greater share of what had been a constitutionally mandated state expense. As we've noted here before, the state constitution prescribes that public university education in North Carolina “as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.” Click here to read more. Submitted by Site Admin on Sat, 2011-09-24 12:02.
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WRAL-TV
September 21, 2011
Chapel Hill, N.C. — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill eliminated 500 classes this fall because of state budget cuts, meaning 16,000 fewer seats for students, according to a report to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday. The flagship campus of the UNC system will slash its budget by $80.7 million in 2011-12, officials told the board.... Chancellor Holden Thorp said UNC-Chapel Hill could be forced to seek more tuition increases to make up for the lost revenue.... "We think we have a significant opportunity to raise tuition without compromising access to the university." Submitted by Site Admin on Thu, 2011-09-22 13:02.
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The News & Observer
September 22, 2011
BY LANA DOUGLAS - STAFF WRITER
CHAPEL HILL -- The decrease in state appropriations for several programs and budget cuts at UNC-Chapel Hill will mean larger class sizes, a decline in the campus's appearance, and staff layoffs. UNC-CH is cutting $80.7 million in fiscal 2011-2012.... Arts and Sciences class sizes have increased by 23 percent, with an additional 40-50 students, and some class sizes are larger than the number accreditation officials recommend. The increase in class sizes "is the best indication that we've cut everything we can think of because we wouldn't do that unless we absolutely have to," Chancellor Holden Thorp said. "We have done everything we can do to keep those cuts away from the classroom, but we're running out of magic beans when it comes to doing that." Click here to read more. Submitted by Site Admin on Thu, 2011-09-22 10:58.
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The News & Observer
Editorial
September 17, 2011 North Carolina has taken pride in its university system, from classrooms where undergraduates probe the arts and sciences to laboratories where professors carry out high-stakes research. Its community colleges, with their close ties to industry, have helped keep the state's workforce from being even more severely wracked by the recession. But to shortchange either of those great resources, or the public schools where young people acquire the essential tools for college success, is to yield to mediocrity, both educational and economic. The pump must be primed, or it will deliver nothing of value. And as a state and society, we will be at risk of a painful, tragic withering. Click here to read more. Submitted by Site Admin on Mon, 2011-09-19 11:09.
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