Chancellor Gary Miller held the second Chancellor’s Town Hall meeting in McNeill Hall Nov. 28 to discuss budget information, tuition and innovation.

In a room full of faculty members, Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs Charles Maimone opened the meeting by highlighting the university’s revenues. The majority of the school’s revenue comes from state appropriations and student tuition and fees.

Maimore discussed the declining funds from state appropriation and said the budget has been reduced by $400,000. Concerns arose as to whether additional funding will be available for incoming freshmen in 2012-2013 and whether faculty and staff members will get raises.

The incoming freshmen class has been frozen for the past few years at 1,982 students. With 11,000 students applying, the question has been raised by the Chancellor and other members: Should we accept more?

Provost Cathy Barlow led the discussion on tuition by going over the general fund revenue, which consists primarily of tuition and appropriations. Losing state appropriations has resulted in the question of raising tuition for students. Barlow then introduced the Campus Initiated Tuition Increase Committee (CITI), a group composed of students, faculty and senate members. CITI meets to evaluate the merits of tuition and fee proposals and then recommends them to the chancellor.

“It wasn’t easy for students to talk about increasing their own tuition,” said Barlow.

Chancellor Miller, introducing his “Dare to Soar” UNCW slogan, discussed creating a climate of innovation for the university. With a restructured CITI Committee and also an Innovation Committee and a Budget Committee, Miller hopes to continue to be at the top tier of the UNC system.

Miller said UNCW needs to be ready to prepare students for work in a 21st century job market. He explained that the purpose of a University Budget Committee is to analyze the financial viability of all budget requests and work with Maimone on other matters related to the financial operations of the university. The committee will be composed of a variety of members, including students and faculty members from various departments on campus.

The Innovation Committee will be responsible for developing innovations such as incentive strategies and making recommendations to the cabinet and Chancellor that will improve the quality of programs offered at UNCW, and also save money and time while increasing revenues. On the Innovation Committee, Miller quoted Alan Kay by saying, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Also discussed was the $65 million Soaring to Greatness Campaign. The campaign has been increasing endowment and private investments by appealing to alumni and other donors. Hopes for this campaign are that with declining state appropriations, some of the donations can provide support for needed revenue. Ninety-four percent of the goal for the campaign has been reached. “One reason we’re succeeding with this campaign is that it’s rare to see a university with such good will behind it. Our next challenge is to extend that alumni and friends base,” said Miller.

“The university is widely admired and receives enormous support. Any way you measure success, we come out in the top tier in this (UNC) system. We’ve got a product as good as any in this country,” said Miller.