UNC-Chapel Hill professor John Shelton Reed recently published a letter in the News and Observer where he discusses the proposed tuition and fee increases within the UNC system. This a copy of the letter, republished with permission.
The recent proposal to raise tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill by $250 a year has produced the predictable squeals of student outrage. Like most faculty members, I suspect, I’m less than sympathetic to students whose family incomes are higher than mine.
Of course, we all know students for whom paying for college is a stretch, but we also know some whose daddies have taken the money they’ve saved by sending their children to a subsidized state school, bought their kids $40,000 SUVs, and banked the considerable change.
It didn’t help when the Daily Tar Heel editorized that the Chapel Hill Roses should be replaced with a more upscale store that would appeal to students. Seems to me that if our students aren’t shopping at Roses, tuition is way too low.
No, many students could cover an extra $250 a year simply by changing their cell phone plans. But how do we get them to pay something like the cost of their education without punishing those who are struggling to make ends meet?
One day when a bunch of us were whining about whiny rich kids, my wife came up with a great idea: UNC should charge students tuition equal to the Blue Book value of their cars.
Think about it. Those who are willing to walk, bicycle or ride our free buses attend absolutely free.
Say you really need a car? My Plymouth Voyager books at $2,845, something like one-third less than UNC’s current in-state tuition. And if you really, really want to drive that SUV you still can. You’ll pay tuition of $40,000 a year, but that’s not all that much more than Duke’s.
I’ll bet this plan wouldn’t reduce UNC’s tuition receipts a nickel. And I know it would help solve our parking problem.