DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997              TAG: 9703130375

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B01  EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   78 lines

ECSU MAY FACE DIP IN STATE FUNDING ONLY AN ENROLLMENT SURGE CAN SAVE THE $850,000 THE SCHOOL COULD LOSE.

Elizabeth City State University faces a sharp drop in state funding for the second straight year unless its officers pull off a recruiting miracle.

``This year we will have to lay off people,'' the school's chancellor, Dr. Mickey Burnim, told the ECSU Board of Trustees Tuesday. ``We hope they will not see fit to cut our budget.''

Burnim's and the trustees' hopes may be dashed unless enrollment for fall 1997 soars well over expectations.

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors assigned ECSU an expected enrollment of 1,945 for fall 1996. ECSU missed that mark by 122 students - a shortfall of 6 percent.

When a school in the 16-member UNC system misses its expected enrollment by 2 percent or more, the board cuts funding in the following year by at least $7,000 for each student under the expected enrollment.

Using that formula, ECSUstands to lose more than $850,000.

Burnim said the university could lose several staff positions as a result.

The state appropriates $18.5 million a year to ECSU.

``He's (Burnim) right to be concerned,'' said Dr. Roy Carroll, senior vice president of academic affairs at the University of North Carolina. ``Last fall, most universities in the system were under expected enrollment - but not by more than 2 percent.''

Carroll said the only way ECSU could ``soften the blow'' is to recruit enough students to be well over the fall 1997 expected enrollment of 1,835. Burnim hopes to recruit 600 new freshmen for this fall. More than 400 applicants already have been accepted.

If ECSU reaches that goal, ``The board may not cut the full amount,'' Carroll said.

The board sliced $660,000 from ECSU's budget last year because enrollment was down. Burnim was able to the absorb the loss without laying off staff, he said.

The Board of Governors establishes enrollment according to the number of ``full-time equivalents.'' Full-time students count as one. A combination of part-time students carrying a total of 12 semester hours also equals one FTE.

ECSU's full-time equivalency mirrored a statewide trend - rising in the early 1990s followed by a recent decline. The university reached its all-time high enrollment of 2,011 in 1993.

Carroll cited several causes for the decline over the last two years:

Drop in number of high school graduates.

Tuition increases.

Decline in out-of-state applicants.

Drop in number of community college graduates.

``Systemwide, we were under-enrolled by more than 2,000 students,'' said Carroll.

``They say when the economy is good, they go to work. When the economy is bad, they go to school,'' said Dr. Deborah Fontaine, vice chairwoman of student affairs at ECSU. ``We anticipate an upswing in the immediate future.''

``We're hoping and praying the success of the men's basketball will help increase our enrollment for next year,'' Burnim told the trustees. ``It typically does.''

The team has drawn state and national attention by becoming one of the final eight teams playing for the NCAA Division II national championship. Second-year coach Barry Hamler was named Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Coach of the Year.

Burnim also introduced ECSU's new web page, (www.ecsu.edu), which includes an audio message from Burnim and an enrollment application.

Despite all the new recruiting initiatives, scholarships and financial aid packages remain the biggest attraction to potential students, Fontaine said.

Through a state-funded Incentive Scholarship Program, ECSU can offer up to $3,800 to students from 21 counties in northeastern North Carolina, reaching west to Vance County and south to Beaufort County. Because of those incentive scholarships, most of ECSU's students come from those counties.

Fontaine said ECSU recruiters are pursuing students from southeastern Virginia and the metro areas of North Carolina.

But that takes money.

``We're aggressively trying to raise scholarship money,'' said Fontaine.

In that attempt, Burnim explained a fund-raising effort - primarily designed to provide scholarship money - called the Millenium Campaign, has already received pledges of $60,000, mostly from alumni and other individuals. Of that amount, $35,000 has already been received.

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