When you have a UNC email address, getting a message from the chancellor in your inbox isn’t uncommon.
Throughout the academic year, and sometimes during the summer, students and faculty will get an email addressed by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz recognizing a holiday, announcing a new hire, or detailing a distinguished professor’s research achievements.
Often these emails go mostly unnoticed, and even sometimes unread. But all of this was not true for the latest email to hit UNC inboxes.
It announced that the university will provide free tuition and fees for incoming North Carolina freshmen whose families make less than $80,000 per year. This happened just days after the Supreme Court declared affirmative action policies unconstitutional.
Recent UNC Hussman School graduate Samuel Garzon said he was excited when he saw the announcement.
“I got really excited because I know it was going to help people. I’m a Covenant Scholar, which basically means I had my whole tuition covered as well during my time at Carolina. And it just felt nice knowing that even more people are going to have their tuition covered now, not only Covenants, but even people who didn’t qualify for that so it’s very exciting. I was really happy when I saw it.”
Garzon said having his tuition covered was what led him to choose UNC over the other schools he got into.
“As someone who didn’t have any financial support, it really took the stress out so I was able to focus on my studies and things like finishing within time and not having any debt,” he said.
The announcement from Guskiewicz did not include details about how the change will be enacted.
It did say that the tuition change will further advance the aid provided by the Carolina Covenant Scholarship – but how that program will be directly affected is also unclear. The scholarship program declined to comment, saying more information will be shared by the university in the coming weeks.
Junior political science major T.J. White said he thinks it is not a coincidence that UNC made this announcement in the wake of the Supreme Court decision against affirmative action.
“I do wish they, since they had this power, did it sooner since I fall within this bracket, below 80,000 [dollars],” White said, “But there’s no coincidence they did this in light of the affirmative action decision as a way to increase accessibility and reach out to marginalized, less wealthy communities.”
In the announcement, Guskiewicz stated UNC will comply with the ruling, meaning race and ethnicity will no longer be a factor in admissions decisions.
But White said he thought the tuition relief for lower income families will still promote diversity.
“That doesn’t mean they aren’t trying to address diversity. This is an aspect of it – socioeconomic diversity. It’s not race so it’s inline with the law but this is a method of addressing that,” he said.
Sophomore environmental science major Jadon Wellum said he thought the announcement was a step in the right direction, but he believes it does not make up for what was lost with affirmative action.
“What this 80k cap does is, it helps I think more so for students who have already been admitted whereas affirmative action helps students even get to the process of being accepted. So many things cost money – SAT prep classes, tutors, all that sort of stuff that can increase your chances of getting into UNC depending on how much money your family has,” said Wellum.
White said this announcement could have changed his college experience and he is optimistic about what it means for future students.
“I live in a household that makes below 80,000 annually and this would have decreased significantly the burden that comes with early adulthood that includes a four year education and I’d also say it probably would have allowed me to have more flexibility and more confidence in taking certain classes and indulging certain majors because I wanted to be thinking about paying back certain loans and debts,” White said, “But with that said, I’m no less grateful this is happening. Just because an injustice that happened to me isn’t being rectified doesn’t mean that shouldn’t be rectified at all. I’m glad that this is becoming a reality for working families across the state.”
With more details to come over the next couple of weeks, students are happy that UNC is taking a step to make college more affordable and are optimistic other universities will follow suit.
Photo via UNC/Johnny Andrews.
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