 The
Faculty Senate approved a motion Monday calling for an increase
in state appropriations per full-time students, and tabled
a similar motion that had requested an increase in student
tuition to raise money for faculty and staff.
The motion, presented to the Faculty Senate by Dr. Richard
G. McGarry, called for state appropriations to Appalachian
State University to increase by $300 per student for the
next two years.
Appalachian currently receives $8,229 for full-time students
per year in state appropriations, giving a total of $88 million,
Director of Budget Betsy P. Payne said.
“I think requesting state-funding for education is
the best way to go,” Dr. Jeffrey L. Bortz said.
Bortz said he was against the first motion to raise tuition,
and seconded the motion made by McGarry.
“I think education ought to be financed by the state
and be free for students,” Bortz said.
“When I was an undergraduate, I did not have to pay
tuition.”
McGarry said the responsibility falls on the state to provide
funding.
“It’s a state university system… and the
legislature is responsible for insuring that there is enough
money for the universities for quality education,”
he said.
Without adequate funding, the possibility students going
out-of-state to other colleges that offer a higher quality
of education may emerge, McGarry said.
“We have a lot of very intelligent students in North
Carolina. We have them here at Appalachian. We can’t
risk losing those students,” he said.
The original motion called for a $300 increase in tuition
fees for students. The money would go to the faculty and
staff, Faculty Senate chair Paul H. Gates said.
The money from the resolution would have gone to support
faculty and staff salaries, as well as opening the door for
hiring more professors and providing more classes, he said.
The motion was tabled because support for how the funds would
be distributed among faculty and staff “evaporated,”
Gates said.
The division of funds would have given 40 percent going to
the faculty and 15 percent to the staff, a cause of discontent
among some Faculty Senate members.
“I disagree with the allotment of the money. I think
the staff needs to be paid adequately for their wonderful
service,” McGarry said.
Staff Council Secretary Janice F. Voss said there was a general
feeling among the staff that the allotment of funds was unfair.
Disagreement also arose over the issue of students as the
source of income.
“Something certainly needs to be done to run a quality
institution, there’s no doubt about that,” McGarry
said.
“I’m not sure that burden needs to be placed
on the backs of students.”
Gates said the motion was, at this point, dead, due to the
motion being tabled for a Dec. 8 meeting of the Faculty Senate,
three days after the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting. The
BOT has to approve the motion before it can be implemented.
“This had, in effect, killed the motion,” Gates
said.
It is not likely it will reappear next spring, but there
is a possibility something similar could appear before the
faculty Senate next year, depending on the success of the
motion passed Monday.
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