Tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill is expected to increase $250 for North Carolinians and $1,250 for out-of-state students in the 2007-08 school year.</p>
<p>The university’s board of trustees approved the increases Thursday, while more than 150 students stood in protest. The proposal will go to the UNC system’s Board of Governors for a final vote in two weeks.</p>
<p>Trustees have discussed raising out-of-state tuition by $5,000 over four years in an effort to reach the 75th percentile of tuition rates among comparable public universities.</p>
<p>“What a travesty,” Jake Fraser, a freshman from Salem, Ore., said as he left the meeting.</p>
<p>The protest was rousing. Students packed the room and cheered when anyone spoke against the increases. One wore a Spider-Man costume. A half-dozen male students wore only bath towels around their waists. They carried signs that said, “Tuition hikes keep me pantless” and “Now Daddy’s going to have to sell the farm.”</p>
<p>Trustees said the increases are necessary.</p>
<p>“I understand this is not without sacrifice by the out-of-state students, but we are committed to making sure you get the quality of education you came here to get,” said Karol Mason, a trustee from Atlanta.</p>
<p>The tuition package will generate $5.9 million for faculty salaries, graduate student stipends and financial aid. The trustees also approved a $500 increase for graduate students and fee increases of $56 for all students.</p>
<p>UNC-CH has become a magnet for top students from outside North Carolina seeking a highly ranked school at a bargain price. Kiplinger’s magazine recently rated the university the best value in the United States among public campuses – for the sixth straight time…</p>
<p>Trustee Paul Fulton of Winston-Salem advocated a $1,500 out-of-state increase, explaining that other universities were raising tuition much faster than UNC-CH. That idea wasn’t embraced. And although trustee Stick Williams of Charlotte voted for the $1,250 out-of-state increase, he worried about what he called an “arms race” in tuition in the United States.</p>
<p>“I don’t really know where higher education is going,” he said.