THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150042
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Two influential members of the North Carolina Black Legislative Caucus charged last month that Republican lawmakers shortchanged Elizabeth City State University when they voted out an education budget for 1995-1997.
But neither snow, nor rain, nor sleet in Raleigh could prevent some GOP legislators from denying the charge Friday.
House Speaker Harold J. Brubaker, an Asheboro Republican, released figures he said showed that ECSU came out better than most University of North Carolina schools in the General Assembly's 1995-1997 statewide educational funding. ECSU is one of five historically black universities in the state's 16-campus university system.
The statistics were prepared by James Newlin, of the legislative fiscal research staff, said Don Follmer, a spokesman for the speaker.
Newlin said ECSU asked for $10,682,000 and got $3,380,600 in capital funding for the two-year period.
``Elizabeth City State University received 31.65 percent of its capital request. While the UNC system, as a whole, received 22.56 percent of its overall request,'' Newlin wrote in a letter to Rep. Robert Grady, a Jacksonville Republican who serves on the House appropriations and education committees.
``In short, Elizabeth City State held its own financially but its enrollment this fall and projected for the year is lower than the budgeted number of students. This represents the second straight year that ECSU's enrollment has declined,'' Newlin said.
``You are also aware that ECSU receives the highest amount of state appropriated scholarship funds per student in the UNC system. This amounts to over $2 million, or the equivalent of $1,125,'' per student, Newlin added.
The fuss started when state Rep. Howard J. Hunter Jr., a Murfreesboro Democrat, and state Rep. Henry M. ``Mickey'' Michaux, D-Durham, told a Dec. 15 meeting of influential African-Americans in Elizabeth City that Republican legislators were ``mean, mean, mean'' - as well as parsimonious - when they doled out money for ECSU last year.
Michaux, a lawyer, and Hunter, a funeral director, are veteran members of the House and are leaders in the state's black community. Hunter is chairman of the Black Legislative Caucus.
Michaux disputed the figures Newlin prepared and insisted that the funding for the historically black ECSU only ``amounted to .02 percent of the total allocations.''
But Newlin stuck by his guns.
``When the amount of funds provided per budgeted student are compared to other UNC campuses, ECSU receives over $9,125 per student - after excluding financial aid - for operating the educational mission of the campus,'' Newlin said.
``This is exceeded only by allocations to the N.C. School of the Arts, UNC-Chapel Hill, and N.C. State University. . . . There is no evidence that ECSU is not receiving substantial funding per student when compared to other UNC campuses.''
Newlin's figures showed that $31,318,400 received for the current biennium by the state's five predominantly black universities amounted to 26.73 percent of the total requests from the African American institutions.
The 11 predominantly white UNC campuses asked the legislature for $683,190,700 and got $149,258,300 - or 21.85 percent, Newlin said.
The past two years have seen change and some discord on the ECSU campus. Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr., who had been chancellor of the institution for 12 years, resigned abruptly over the summer. Toward the end of Jenkins' administration, ECSU was troubled with accusations brought by two white female professors who said they were discriminated against at ECSU. Both professors subsequently left the school.
UNC President C. D. Spangler Jr. appointed Dr. Mickey Burnim of North Carolina State Central University to be acting ECSU chancellor. by CNB