9

Chairman Ruffin, in bringing the debate to a close, yielded to Mr. Nieman for a

final statement. In his address to the board, Mr. Nieman said,

I realize that the vote is probably going to happen in a minute, whenever it’s going to
happen, no matter what I say, but I think it’s important that the students have an
opportunity for one more time before the vote comes through. So I have a few brief
comments and I will keep them brief.

The way I see it, this issue is segmented into two primary areas of discussion. We have
two items here, which in my opinion, violate the spirit of our State Constitution and the
letter of our tuition policy framework adopted in November 1998. The two things are:

This type of extreme (35% as Mr. Sanders inferred) tuition increase to move the
document in the spirit of “as free as practicable.”I don’t think our practicability standard
is violated by just setting out the one year. I think it is practical to only make one
recommendation. As far as the letter of our tuition policy, the campus requests made by
East Carolina University, UNC Wilmington, and UNC Charlotte all have degrees of
merit. In some I see more merit than others. We have a policy that says very specifically
that we will keep differences within a certain Carnegie class at a minimal level. This
kind of proposed increase jumps out, especially at UNC Wilmington and UNC Charlotte,
being among two of eight Comprehensive I institutions is not a minimal difference—it is
a significant difference by any reasonable standard that I would make.

Last year was my first year as a student. We went through this situation with
tuition and I felt like I was included all along as I have been this year. And when it came
down to it, I considered my role as being to visit the campuses and many people in this
room were there when I did this. I visited the campuses and explained to them that this
tuition increase was necessary and not worthy of strong student opposition. As a whole,
we as students should consent to this, that we understand that in some cases a tuition
increase is necessary. I did that, Mr. Chairman. I feel like this year I’m going to have to
do something else. I am going to have to go to the campus of ECU and apologize to the
students who were underwater, despite the fact they stuck it out through the flood.
Despite the fact that one-third of them were homeless for weeks and months, and only 30
dropped out or withdrew due to the hardship of that. I’m going to tell them that their
reward for doing that is a $300 tuition increase imposed by this board. I’ve heard a lot
about the amount of work that has gone into this, a lot of work went into this at the
trustee level at Wilmington, or Charlotte, or at ECU. I think a lot of work went into it
before that. Myself, along with the other members of this board, the General
Administration staff, and the staffs at the campuses went to a lot of work to put together a
tuition framework. We’re not worried about them doing that this morning. A lot of work
conducted by the President’s staff went into her requests and she made a recommendation
to our board that fit perfectly in line with the tuition policy framework.

I guess what I want to tell you in closing is about one of the most memorable times for
me since I have had the opportunity to serve on this board. It was my very first meeting
on the board. I came on the board in July of 1998 and many of you remember that
meeting was a very contentious meeting. It was the election of our Chairman. And no
matter how you come down on that contentious election between two very qualified
candidates,afterwards I don’t think you can help but be inspired by the words from a
man who showed up on the campus of North Carolina Central; $200 in his pocket; didn’t
know that he needed to have money for books; and didn’t know if he had enough money
for next semester’s tuition. But because of the opportunity afforded him by low tuition,
he went on to gain a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from our institutions;