NEWS

CHAPEL HILL – Most people know that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the nation’s first state university. But most North Carolinians do not know that state appropriations account for less than a third of the university’s operating budget, according to a recent poll.

State appropriations represented 25 percent, or about $368 million, of the university’s total revenue sources in fiscal 2002-03. That percentage is down from more than 30 percent in fiscal 1999.

More than 60 percent of North Carolinians overestimated the current percentage when responding to a statewide telephone survey conducted by UNC’s Odum Institute for Research in Social Sciences.

Fifteen percent of respondents thought the state paid for more than two-thirds of the university’s budget, while 47 percent answered between one-third and two-thirds. Only 39 percent of North Carolinians chose the correct answer: less than one-third.

The university’s state appropriations have declined as a total percentage of its operating budget as other fund sources have grown faster, said Dr. Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development. For example, the university is relying more on the faculty’s ability to attract research funding from sources such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as on private gifts contributed by generous donors to the Carolina First campaign.

"State support remains essential to the university’s future, but the university is working hard to enhance other revenue streams than can help meet pressing needs related to our mission of teaching, research and public service that benefits all North Carolinians," Waldrop said.

In fiscal 2002, Carolina ranked 13^th in NIH funding among private and public universities and fifth overall among publics. Overall, the faculty set a university record by recording a 10 percent increase in research funding for 2003 to $537 million – up from $488 million in 2002.

"This is a remarkable achievement by our scientists and investigators that relates directly to the university’s ability to positively contribute to the state’s economy," Waldrop said. "We attribute part of this success to our practice of reinvesting into our research enterprise the reimbursements, or overhead receipts, we receive from the federal government for the cost of conducting research.

"Those gains, leveraged with funds from the Higher Education Bond Referendum and private gifts, are helping us to build and modernize facilities, attract and retain top faculty conducting cutting-edge research, and sustain our academic programs."

The university’s success in tapping new revenue streams might explain the gap between public perceptions and the facts about the level of state support at the university, said Dr. Ken Bollen, director of the Odum Institute.

"Public perceptions often lag actual changes," he said. "This is particularly true when the growth in non-state funding has been so rapid. As a state university, it’s easy to understand why North Carolinians might think that most of its yearly budget would come from the state. These survey results show the need to correct this impression."

The telephone poll of 404 North Carolinians was conducted last November and December. The UNC-Chapel Hill budget question was among several covered with respondents. Other questions focused on security-related issues including jobs, the economy, crime and terrorism. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percent.

UNC’s Odum Institute, founded in 1924 by renowned sociologist Howard W. Odum, maintains one of the nation’s largest archives of polling and census data and supports social science research on campus through statistical and survey consulting, short courses and colloquia, and a state-of-the-art computing laboratory. The Odum Institute welcomes online visitors at http://www.odum.unc.edu.

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Sources: For more information on the survey and the Odum Institute, contact Bollen, (919) 843-5990, bollen@email.unc.edu, or Peter Leousis, (919) 966-2350, leousis@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu