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| This well-heeled PAC packs a powerful punch
In Chapel Hill, money and prestige at stake in system break-up
MARY SCHULKEN
Listen to this:
"Our University is one of our state's most important funding resources, with growing financial needs. Yet the sources of UNC's funding are in constant legislative debate and under growing uncertainty."
And this:
" ... We are committed to creating a proactive voice to address the public, legislative and funding issues affecting North Carolina's higher education University System."
If you are a proud graduate of any of North Carolina's 16 fine universities, those words sound like a call to action. "Bully!" you think. Right on. Molly Broad is getting people fired up to work the legislature.
But that message isn't coming from Broad, president of North Carolina's university system. It's coming from the state's second largest Political Action Committee, Citizens for Higher Education. And despite the artful wording on the Web site (citizensforhighered.org), this group's interest isn't North Carolina's system of higher education. Its interest is one university -- the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Higher education PACs are not new. N.C. State also has one. And East Carolina, the state's third largest campus, followed suit last year. It's not necessarily wrong for alumni and supporters to band together to get politicians' attention.
What is new -- and disturbing -- is that Chapel Hill's PAC has fired shots at the UNC system. Its Web site and letter-writing campaign ask alumni to strong-arm state lawmakers to approve two measures that the UNC system has flatly condemned.
The first would give UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State independent powers to set tuition rates. The second would allow all full scholarships for out-of-state students to be paid at in-state tuition rates. Both have passed the state Senate.
Why are those bad ideas? For one thing, they benefit two Tar Heel universities at the expense of all the others. But worse, they would override the authority of the Board of Governors for the UNC system, giving political influence a direct role in decisions about university funding.
N.C. State has not asked for these measures. It has not lobbied for their approval. But in Chapel Hill, money and prestige are at stake.
Before North Carolina decided to operate its public universities as a system instead of as individual institutions, the state had a flagship university in Chapel Hill, a state ag school in Raleigh and a woman's college in Greensboro. The 12 other campuses' roles and budgets were far less established. It was every campus for itself.
Under central governance, all the state's universities -- Chapel Hill included -- have thrived. But the two major research institutions -- Chapel Hill and N.C. State -- make a persuasive case that funding levels have constrained them. They say unless that changes, the quality of valuable nationally recognized programs will erode.
It does take more money to support research than to support the average undergraduate liberal arts program.
But campus autonomy -- in essence dissolving the university system -- is not the solution. The Board of Governors should create a fund that research institutions could use for exceptional needs. That way, all five research campuses -- including UNC Charlotte -- would be strengthened. But Citizens for Higher Education isn't lobbying for that.
Everyone should worry about the money this PAC packs. These Heels are well-heeled.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that Citizens for Higher Education raised $465,380 during 2003 and 2004. It gave prolifically to political candidates in 2004: $362,000 in all. Chapel Hill's PAC donated more money to legislators in the General Assembly than any other PAC, according to the N&O. That includes big spenders such as the N.C. Medical Society's PAC and the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers.
In comparison, N.C. State's PAC contributed $17,000 to legislators during the 2004 election. ECU's PAC gave $8,000.
It's one thing to support your school and make sure its voice is heard. It's another to pile money bags on politicians' doorsteps and muscle through legislation that blows up the system.
That's what Chapel Hill's PAC is trying to do, plain and simple. That's arrogant, and it's wrong.
Mary Schulken is an Observer associate editor. Write her at P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308, e-mail mschulken@charlotteobserver.com.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/columnists/mary_schulken/12039722.htm
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