by Jeff Hamlin
Assistant News Director

The economic times are tight, and they’re only going to get worse.

With that in mind, Paul Fulton believes the General Assembly did everything it could to help the UNC System in the recently-passed budget.

Fulton is a member of Citizens for Higher Education. The new state budget approved last month cuts around $171 million from the UNC system. UNC President Erskine Bowles says considering this is the toughest economic environment he’s ever lived through, it could have been much worse.

Citizens for Higher Education lobbied the General Assembly to support the basic priorities of the UNC system. The group tried to persuade legislators for enough funding for enrollment growth, funding for cancer research and to keep faculty salaries competitive with other states.

Fulton likes to believe they made a difference.

However, the difficult economic times may only be starting. Individual schools within the UNC system have been asked to cut 10% from their budgets in anticipation of another shortfall next year.