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| For Release: IMMEDIATE | Contact: Public Affairs |
| Date: June 9, 2003 |
Celebrating 40 years of "College That Really Works" for North Carolina
CONSULTANT RECOMMENDS COST SAVINGS, ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM
Raleigh: After pronouncing the North Carolina Community College System "lean and mean" in his preliminary report, today Dr. Kent Caruthers offered recommendations to make the System even more effective and efficient.
Caruthers, of MGT of America, was hired by the State Board of Community Colleges and the Legislative Education Oversight Committee as a consultant to study the organization and structure of the NCCCS and the formula for instructional and administrative support. He was to also determine if the State could realize any administrative savings from the consolidation of some colleges or programs.
Caruthers described historical practices, fiscal issues, legal and structural concerns and organized opposition that would be formidable barriers to achieving savings through college consolidation. He outlined lower-risk strategies involving administrative consolidation of selected functions that could offer the same savings. He suggested the State Board of Community Colleges work with the community colleges to explore these options.
Caruthers said consolidation, if considered, should focus on the three community colleges with enrollment under 1000: Montgomery, Pamlico, and Roanoke-Chowan. "The larger the institution, the lower the administrative costs," said Caruthers. His study suggests that merging these colleges into larger ones could potentially save $2 million.
Caruthers also addresses the funding formula for instructional and administrative support. Caruthers said the current policy of providing a base allotment of $1.56 million for each college and an enrollment allotment of $1093 per each Full Time Equivalent (FTE) student above 750 FTE does not place enough consideration on headcount enrollment as a measure of workload. He recommended that the base allotment per college be reduced to $1 million and that there be an enrollment allotment that is based on a simple average of blending FTE and headcount of approximately $434 per "blended student."
The third recommendation would increase funding for community colleges that are multiple campus colleges (MCC) or that operate off-campus centers (OCC). Currently, the General Assembly provides $92,000 for each campus of the MCC, which offers an extensive range of services, in addition to funding the institution’s main campus. It does not provide supplemental funds for OCCs, which do not offer the full array of services. "Current funding levels for MCCs and OCCs are not sufficient to fund the core support functions that are needed for these types of instructional sites," said Caruthers. He recommends a base allotment of approximately $300,000 for MCCs and $100,000 for OCCs.
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