News 14 Carolina's Shelvia Dancey spoke to students at UNC Chapel Hill who were upset about the latest round of tuition hikes.
CHAPEL HILL -- College students worried about a tuition hike made a silent protest at Thursday's meeting of the UNC Board of Governors. At least a dozen students from N.C. State University carpooled to the meeting where board members discussed raising tuition. Students stood silently in the doorway, hoping their presence would speak for them.
"Even though our chancellor only recommended 2.7 percent [tuition increase], some people might be trying to get the maximum," said Michael Lloyd, one of the students who attended. "As students, we can't afford the maximum."
Josh Millwood, a freshman at N.C. State, agreed.
Overall, the average proposed increase for the 16 UNC campuses is between 2 and 2.4 percent.
"It's a lot of financial strain on the students because a lot of them they're paying it themselves, or they have loans and things like that," he said, "and this makes them even work harder."
Members of the Board of Governors spent Thursday reviewing requests from some university leaders to increase tuition. They'll vote formally on the issue Friday. UNC System president Erskine Bowles said the average tuition increase statewide would be less than 2 percent.
"If you look at the overall increase for all of our universities, added up, the increase in tuition is [an average of] only 1.2 percent," he said, noting that some university leaders chose not to recommend an increase at all for in-state undergraduates. That's the case at UNC Chapel Hill.
"Because the North Carolina General Assembly was so generous to UNC, and especially to Chapel Hill, in the last general session, we felt that this was a time to stand back and not go for a resident, undergraduate tuition increase," explained James Moeser, UNC Chapel Hill's chancellor.
Bowles said students should not worry about a steep tuition hike.
"They're worried it's going to go up 6, 6.5 percent," he said. "I don't think you're going to see any individual campus go above 3 percent, and I think the vast majority of them will be even below that."
But at a time in their lives when every penny counts, students want to make sure their voices count.
"We're taking out of our class time to be here and talk about this. Hopefully they'll recognize this," added Lloyd. "And we're very optimistic that this will have an effect or else we wouldn't be down here."
The entire Board of Governors will vote on a final tuition increase Friday. UNC system leaders said the average tuition increase for in-state undergraduates was 5.2 percent last year. That's a drop from the 2006-2007 school year, when the average tuition cost increased 12.1 percent.