Our Own Students Should Get Priority

If the 18 percent cap on out-of-state students in the University of North Carolina system needs to be raised (we don’t think it does), at least let’s do it by the front door.

With little discussion, state Senate leaders slipped a de facto increase in through the back door near the end of the recently concluded session. The N.C. School Boards Association now wants the General Assembly to repeal that provision and has initiated a letter-writing campaign to that end.

North Carolinians who oppose the idea of curtailing the numbers of their sons and daughters who can attend the university — while extending subsidies to more non-North Carolinians — should take advantage of this opportunity to make their feelings forcefully known.

A liberal sprinkling of out-of-state students is a good thing for a university system. It broadens the outlook of home-state students by bringing in bright outsiders with different outlooks and experiences. Furthermore, youthful outsiders often find that they like it here so much that they stay on after graduation, making many contributions to their adopted state.

The touchy question of just how many out-of-state students is too many has been debated spiritedly over the decades. A good compromise was finally struck at the 18-percent figure, and it was inappropriate for that ratio to be thrown out of balance so casually and indirectly.

The change, a little-noticed and little-debated part of a budget bill hurried through late in the session, affects primarily the biggest and most competitive campuses. It gives the trustees of each school the option of granting in-state status to full-time scholarship recipients from other states or countries. Such exemptions would allow the athletic and academic foundations that provide the scholarships to save a lot of money, but they would also not count against the 18-percent cap.