UNC President Margaret Spellings has offered the following statement on the 2016-17 state budget negotiated by the NC General Assembly’s Budget Conference Committee:
The 2016-17 state budget now pending final legislative approval recognizes the role and value of the University of North Carolina and supports our highest funding priorities. At a time when resources are scarce in every part of state government, legislators stood tall for our 225,000 students, faculty and staff. We are grateful that the General Assembly worked hard to address the UNC system’s most pressing needs and help us protect the quality and affordability of education we deliver to our students. This budget provides pay raises for faculty and staff, funds enrollment growth and advances our efforts to better serve part-way home students. It also provides critical support for our two Schools of Medicine and restores the University’s share of the reserve for capital repairs and renovations. We welcome the call to devise and implement a plan to improve graduation outcomes, and we share the goal — evidenced in the N.C. Promise tuition plan and a new merit scholarship program — to keep college affordable and make the cost to students and families more predictable and stable. Such tangible support for UNC is vitally important to the economic future of North Carolina, and we thank the General Assembly for this show of confidence in our public universities.