In anticipation of what appears to be an imminent lift of the University of North Carolina system-wide ban on tuition increases for in-state students, Appalachian State University Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock was instructed to create a committee to consider and recommend an appropriate tuition increase for the 2010-11 school year.

While the recommendation process is in its infant stages, The Appalachian believes any potential tuition or fee increase is an issue all students and prospective students should be aware of and interested in.

The Tuition Committee proposed an initial plan Oct. 30 that would call for a 6.5 percent tuition increase for the 2010-11 school year. This would amount to a $151.89 increase for in-state undergraduates and a $250.42 increase for out-of-state students.

The Committee released a second proposal Friday with a 4.75 percent increase, making the proposed tuition hike $111 for in-state students and $183 for out-of-state students.

This current proposed plan, which can be found in full on page three of this newspaper, includes a line for the Financial Aid “Hold Harmless” provision, as well as the addition of several faculty and administrative positions to the tuition budget.

The “Hold Harmless” provision is in compliance with a UNC system policy stating that for any tuition increase, half of the revenue must go to financial aid. In short, whatever the total price of all other items in the proposed tuition hike, the amount must be matched in money going to financial aid.

Of the remaining items in the proposal, there are a total of 16 positions to be added to the tuition budget. Ten of these positions are new, while six are positions currently being funded through fee monies.

While we recognize and appreciate the work the Tuition Committee has already done in tightening the proposed tuition increase, we feel there are appropriate and feasible options to further reduce the tuition increase to 3.14 percent.

We would first eliminate the line calling for three new library faculty positions.

While we understand the importance of a well-run and well-staffed library, given the economic times students and their families continue to endure, we think it is appropriate to hold off on the creation of positions the university has, to this point, survived without in an area that currently serves students effectively.

The elimination of this line would subtract $198,348 from the total uses.

We then turn our attention to the Learning Assistance Program academic advisers, Counseling Center counselors and Financial Aid counselors lines, each of which refer to two positions currently being funded through various student fee monies.

While leaving all six of these positions in their current situations would quickly begin to detract from the quality of the Appalachian experience by diverting money from other important projects, we feel it is equally inappropriate to move all six back under the tuition budget at this time.

We propose a compromise: instead of two positions under each line, include only one in the tuition increase, leaving the other under their respective fee-funded locations until the economy allows students and their families a chance to recover from the recent downturn.

This option would ease the strain on the fee budgets, but it would also save $70,248, $52,992 and $66,356 in the respective lines on the tuition increase proposal.

These two changes total a savings of $387,944.50. This amount can be doubled since the same amount can also be deducted from the “Hold Harmless” line, saving a total of $775,889, over a third of the current proposal’s total revenue of $2,291,432.

This would bring the proposed tuition increase to 3.14 percent, saving each of Appalachian’s approximately 13,500 in-state undergraduates $37.62 and each of the approximate 1,500 out-of-state undergraduates another $62.03 next year.

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