DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200398

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   84 lines

ECSU GETS MIXED RESULTS ON SOPHOMORE SURVEY

Elizabeth City State University administrators are overjoyed at the near-record numbers of new students recruited to the school this year. The problem is keeping them there.

More than 300 students - about 15 percent of the student body - transferred from the school last year. The ideal is 3 to 5 percent.

Chancellor Mickey Burnim revealed last week ECSU's poor showing on the first-ever sophomore survey conducted in all of the 16 schools in the University of North Carolina system.

The survey, which dealt with the quality of education, has not been made public by the UNC system.

``I applaud Chancellor Burnim,'' said Gary Barnes, vice president of program assessment and public service for the UNC system. ``He's trying to identify where Elizabeth City State University needs to improve. You can't improve until you convince people there is a problem.''

In four of the eight survey questions, ECSU finished last or near the bottom when compared to the other universities in the UNC system.

In the key question of the survey, 57 percent of the sophomores rated the quality of instruction at ECSU as good or excellent. But ECSU was last by 10 percentage points and 20 points below the average for the other schools.

``We don't want Elizabeth City State University to be the lowest in anything of this sort,'' said Burnim.

Thirty-seven percent of the sophomores said they would choose ECSU again if given a choice. Only Winston-Salem State University and ECSU fell below 40 percent in that category. Most of the other universities scored near 70 percent. The highest score came from East Carolina University, with 80 percent responding positively.

In ECSU's favor, recruitment reached 556 new and transfer students this fall, the most since 1993 when the university reached an all-time high enrollment of 2,330.

Since then, the enrollment has dropped every year, causing the university's 1997-98 budget allotment from the University of North Carolina Board of Governors to take a free fall. The $843,613 reduction forced Burnim to cut seven faculty positions and five staff positions.

Burnim has already set up a student retention task force chaired by interim vice president for development and planning, James McLean. The task force includes the new vice chancellor of academic affairs and dean of faculty, Albert Walker.

``We must find out why our students don't return,'' said Walker, who has a long list of accomplishments at other universities. ``It's good for all institutions to get a feel for if they're doing what they're supposed to do.''

Walker and the task force have pinpointed several areas where the university should improve:

Better training for administrators and directors.

More effective management of personnel.

Improve interpersonal skills of faculty and staff.

Improve instruction and advisement.

Under the category of improving instruction, Walker added more specific objectives.

Expand teaching strategies beyond lecturing.

Incorporate more technology in the classroom.

Include the latest research in the classroom.

``We're here because of the students,'' Walker said. ``They're our customers. If we don't treat our students well they will leave.''

The UNC system will conduct the sophomore survey again in 1998 and then every other year after that. An alumni survey has been taken every other year since 1975, said Barnes. A freshman survey is conducted every year.

``This sophomore survey is not a survey we plan to quote `count,' '' said Barnes. ``That doesn't mean that what we learned last spring we're going to discount altogether.''

Barnes would not say what repercussions occur when a university consistently does poorly on a survey.

The initial sophomore survey was taken at each university using several methods, he said. The UNC Board of Governors is still trying to determine the best method or methods for conducting the survey.

ECSU did score relatively well when sophomores were asked if the faculty cared about their academic success and welfare, with 65 percent responding good or excellent.

In the alumni survey, 89 percent said the overall quality of instruction in their major was good or excellent.

ECSU is about to get its second endowed chair and a master's degree program, and the university is in the midst of constructing a new computer center, a fine arts building and expanding the library.

``We believe all this means we've turned a corner and that things are on an upswing,'' Burnim said. KEYWORDS: RETENTION SURVEY

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