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| For Release: IMMEDIATE | Contact: Public Affairs |
| Date: January 20, 2005 |
Growth reserve fund recommended for Community College System
RALEIGH – Rapid enrollment growth causes serious funding problems for individual community colleges that are not addressed by the current funding formula. Students suffer because of the lack of funds; some are underserved while others are not served at all.
A reserve fund of $11,000,000 is needed to address enrollment bursts at community colleges. This is the recommendation from a study that was commissioned to look at enrollment projections and the funding formula for community colleges. The results of the study and its recommendations were presented to the State Board of Community Colleges today, January 20. The study also looked at funding for "High-Cost Programs."
Dr. Donny Hunter of the firm Hockaday-Hunter & Associates told the State Board that their approach was to not look at changing the way the North Carolina Community College System is presently funded, which has current funding based on the full-time enrollment (FTE) of the previous year. Their goal was to determine what problems the current funding formula creates and recommend ways to solve the problems.
The study determined that on average individual community colleges have serious funding problems when their enrollment growth increases more than 3.2% of the previous year. To offset the funding shortage, colleges cut programs, increase faculty loads by increasing class sizes, reduce support staff, or pull funding from other sources to meet the growing demand.
The answer to the problem is to have an available source of funds from which the community college system could draw to meet specific needs could draw. The study recommends that the funding gap is addressed by establishing an $11,000,000 non-reverting reserve fund that would be controlled by the State Board and distributed by a formula the Board develops. This fund would be used for enrollment growth at individual colleges in the current academic year. If the entire $11 million is not expended in a year, that money would be carried over to the next year and the legislature would replenish up to the $11 million threshold.
This study was presented to and favorably received by the Education Oversight Committee last week. The enrollment reserve recommendations will be included in its budget proposal for community colleges.
Dr. Jeff Hockaday presented the second part of the study which determined that Allied Health programs cost significantly more to run on campuses. In order to encourage more individual colleges to offer these programs, and to ensure that they receive adequate funding, the report made four recommendations to the State Board:
- Determine which programs in the NCCCS specifically fall into the general area of Allied Health.
- Determine appropriate weighting of costs for Allied Health Programs against all other programs.
- Work to secure additional funding for Allied Health Programs.
- If funding is secured, modify the funding formula to allow for the differentiation.
The report was enthusiastically received.
In other action the State Board approved the appointment of Dr. Thomas E. Williams as Interim President of Mayland Community College, effective July 1, 2005, the date of his retirement. Dr. Williams has served as president since 1997. He will stay on as Interim President until his successor is found.
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