The mission statement of the University of North Carolina promises that the benefits of higher education will, “as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.”  Yet currently each UNCG in-state undergraduate student pays an annual tuition and fee bill of $6322, including $3932 for tuition (which funds teaching), and $2930 in fees.  Fees for athletics and facilities have increased 77% since 2010.  Meanwhile, UNCG’s proportion of spending on academics has decreased to only 55% of the total budget.

UNCG is pursuing a corporate business model that is not financially or ethically sustainable because it demands that students finance campus expansion, athletics, and elite amenities we do not want or use at the expense of our educations.  As fees have increased, faculty and courses have been cut, job prospects have declined, and lower-income students have been forced to drop out of college or face a life of debt. 60% of male students on government loans leave UNCG with debt, but without a degree.

Each UNCG student currently pays $435 per year in “facilities fees” to build a luxurious, $91 million, 216,000-square-foot, “state-of-the-art” student recreation center in the Glenwood neighborhood.  UNCG has not said how it will pay the enormous costs to operate, maintain, and staff the rec center once it is built—students or taxpayers? 

In the name of UNCG students, the university has expanded into the historical, diverse, working-class neighborhood of Glenwood, using unethical practices, displacing residents, destroying houses and trees, and disrupting neighborhood character. 

Therefore, we, the undersigned UNCG students, petition Chancellor Brady and the Board of Trustees of UNCG to demand the following:

>An immediate and permanent end to the planning and construction of a recreation center in Glenwood;

>Within one year, refunds to all UNCG students who have paid fees to build the rec center;

>An immediate end to the buying property, demolition of homes, and destruction of trees in Glenwood; and return to Glenwood of unethically acquired property;

>A system so that students can decide about expansions of athletics and amenities through a referendum after full disclosure of financial and other costs;

>That UNCG hold no meetings or announcements about student fees during holidays or breaks;

>And that UNCG be truly transparent with its students, faculty, and the wider Greensboro community.