Campus Reform: University of North Carolina at Asheville

Recently, Campus Reform covered the story of the unnecessary programs cut from the UNC system in order to curtail the budget cuts facing the UNC system.

In light of the current situation on UNC campuses, the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education came to the same conclusion I did: the Board of Governors are off to a great start, but in order to restore financial stability and quality higher education institutions more needs to be done.   

The Pope Center came up with six other recommendations that would "restore the university to its proper size and role."  The six recommendations are:  

1. reducing excessive costs or excessive growth,
2. improving quality
3. eliminating politicization
4. eliminating "mission creep"
5. eliminating redundancy
6. eliminating programs no longer needed due to changing conditions.

Reducing the excessive costs or excessive growth on college campuses is the only way to reign in unnecessary costs taken on by taxpayers and students.  In the past two years that I have worked at Campus Reform, UNC system schools have expanded substantially in the university population, programs, and number of buildings.  According to The Pope Center, the campus population has increased 38% since 2000 while the total North Carolina population growth is less than half of that. 

From my own campus watch, I noticed that many universities have pushed for new building projects costing hundreds of millions.  Most recently, NC State came under fire for approving the costly plans to build of the new Talley student center without the approval of the student body.  This action gradually increased student activity fees over the course of the building project on top of the yearly increases in tuition.

In addition to the expansion of costs and growth, I have also noticed the addition of programs that are not only costly but unnecessary for a quality education but wasteful to taxpayers.  For example, the UNC-Greensboro administration approved the new "fit and phat" program in order to provide "women of color a culturally competent place to become more educated about health and wellness...[and to] address the sociocultural components of wellness, and needs of minority women at UNCG."  How is this program related to the academic success of all students at UNCG? It's not and shouldn't be included.

 The Pope Center also pointed out a lot of redundancies and unnecessary programs throughout the UNC system:

Consider that Appalachian State, Western Carolina and East Carolina each have at least four centers that deal with entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development. UNC-Chapel hill has two African American cultural centers. There are also at least four major Marine Sciences programs at UNC schools.

Additionally, Fayetteville State started an online MBA program just last year, raising the question of what exactly it does that the UNC systems 20+ MBA programs (three of them also online) don't?

Bottom line: UNC Board of Governors has already made an effort to cut programs that are inefficient, unnecessary or too costly; However, there are MANY other programs, classes and building projects that, if cancelled or postponed, would save the UNC system millions of dollars.  More focus should be placed on cutting back and reigning in the expontential and unsustainable growth of college campuses instead of raising tuition and student fees (or taxes on the taxpayers) to cover wasteful programs.