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actually voted on the matter. To clarify the matter, Chairman Ruffin asked that Mr. Nieman and

the students return to the meeting. In the interim, Governor Holshouser made one last statement:

Mr. Chairman, I was prepared to forego my comments on the main motion but since you
have given us another opportunity, I’d like to take advantage of it. I think we have had a
good demonstration yesterday and today of what the legislature would face every session
if the Board of Governors weren’t around. Some who think that our governance structure
should be changed ought to remember that this is the kind thing that the legislature hoped
to keep off its desk. And they have entrusted us with those decisions.

Secondly, I’d like to thank the students, most of whom have left, for their concern and the
responsible manner in which they have conducted themselves, and to Jeff in particular.
This has also been a lesson for everybody in real world decision making. Sometimes it’s
not pretty and sometimes it’s a choice between distasteful options. There are those who
would say let the legislature do it, and that is so easy to say. In the world of thought
textbooks would be written about how that’s a good thing to do. But I have been over in
the legislature, several of you have, and there are times when you know in your heart and
in your head that it isn’t going to happen. It’s an election year that’s more important than
usual. I have to tell you I have never in my whole life voted for a tax increase, and as
much as I love the University, if I were sitting in the legislature in 2000 with redistricting
coming up in 2001, and the decision making for a decade, I probably wouldn’t be voting
for a tax increase. That’s sort of the real world.

Some of us, maybe many of us, would like to treat this thing as we have talked about it.
A number of good suggestions have come forward and we’ve had a long study by the
President and her staff before they came to us with an initial draft in January. At that
work session, they invited us to explore options. You weighed in with letters of your
suggestions. We had another work session yesterday and the committee had, I
understand, a lively discussion so that the final recommendation has come to us as sort of
this sifting and blending of various points of view on our board. This has had as much
discussion as any issue I can remember for the board in its history.

I have two special things I want to say to the students and their families, to the
legislature, to the people of our state, and to the higher education community across the
nation. I do not believe that this is a change from our historic low tuition policy that is
mandated by our State Constitution. Rather I believe it is a short-term, temporary
response to the extraordinary circumstances we face because of Hurricane Floyd and the
flooding across Eastern North Carolina. We would not be having this discussion today,
in my opinion, if the state treasury had not been simply wiped out as a result of that
storm. I don’t view this as a precedent. I think Jeff’s point is well taken about the
differential, and I don’t view this as a precedent for changing our existing policy in that
regard.

The second point I want to make is for the students and their families, and particularly for
the media from whom most of those families are going to get this information about our
meeting. Take special note that there is a financial aid increase that is a key component
in this proposal, and it represents our commitment to continued access, and that’s what
that constitutional provision is all about—access. I believe it’s temporary, I hope it’s
temporary, I believe we have a duty to go to the legislature and ask them to replace the
tuition funds with appropriations as soon as the state recovers from its circumstances.

This is a very hard time, or we wouldn’t be having the discussions we are having around
the table. And we would all just as soon let this cup pass from us. And hard times make
for hard decisions, but hard times also call for leadership in being willing to make those
decisions and I think we have fulfilled our responsibility today. Thank you.