North Carolina Lawmakers Extend NC Promise Program
State lawmakers have extended an initiative that cuts tuition at three North Carolina colleges and universities, including historically black Elizabeth City State University, through 2025.
The North Carolina Senate earlier this month passed additional funding for NC Promise initiative, which finances tuition at three public institutions and caps annual tuition costs at $1,000 for in-state students and $5,000 for out-of-state students but does not cover meal plans, fees, and expenses for attendance.
The program has created noticeable gains in first-year and transfer student enrollment at each of the schools in recent years. From the News & Observer:
Overall, undergraduate enrollment has risen 19 percent at ECSU, 14 percent at UNCP and 6.6 percent at WCU, according to new figures released by the UNC system office. Among the first-year classes, ECSU and UNCP saw 20 percent increases, while WCU experienced a 10.5 percent jump.
But the biggest percentage growth came in the population of students who transferred from other schools. Transfer students increased 57 percent at ECSU, 56 percent at UNCP and 40 percent at Western Carolina.
The program, approved by the state legislature in 2016, provides a cheaper four-year university option. NC Promise has been promoted as an affordable opportunity for all North Carolinians, who are within 150 miles of a participating campus.
The original plan was funded with $51 million from the legislature in 2018, but the extension allots $30.4 million between 2021-2025.
“We are grateful to the North Carolina General Assembly and to Gov. Roy Cooper for their continued support of N.C. Promise and the education of North Carolina students,” said ECSU Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon. “Students attending ECSU under the N.C. Promise Tuition Program receive a quality university education at an affordable price.”
Jackson State to Develop COVID-19 Rapid Test
Researchers at Jackson State University have received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an optic-based test to increase the timing and accuracy of testing patients for coronavirus infection.
The JSU Department of Chemistry, Physics and Atmospheric Sciences will house the grant and research, which officials say could reduce the use of traditional nasal swabbing and provide results in less than seven days, the average time that some currents tests take to provide results to potential virus carriers.
From a release:
Jackson State University professor Dr. Paresh Chandra Ray said a quicker detection is vital to saving lives, especially since the CDC reports that the disease, to date, has killed 124,000 victims in the U.S. and 484,000 people worldwide.
Ray, the grant PI and a researcher in JSU’s College of Science, Engineering and Technology, said, “There is an urgent need for a rapid coronavirus test platform throughout the world at this moment.”
His research involves an examination of RNA, a molecule that helps regulate genes.
“This RAPID proposal will develop a sensitive, fast and easy-to-use optical technique to detect viral-RNA using Raman spectroscopy, a method of fingerprinting and identifying COVID-19,” Ray said.
The Financial Trends That Killed the MEAC
More than 25% of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s member schools have announced their intentions to leave the historically black Division I league in the last four months. In a joint press conference with Howard University President and Chair of the MEAC Council of Presidents Wayne A.I. Frederick, MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas last week addressed the defections but created confusion with some of his views of the conference’s continuing viability and productivity under his tenure.
Here are a few select jewels.
On Losing Marquee Members
“Just to say that FAMU, A&T, and Bethune-Cookman are leaving the conference doesn’t mean that we don’t have high-profile institutions remaining. Now we will be able to look at it more strategically in terms of what fits for our conference academic, athletically, and geographically in terms of where we are.”
On Concerns with Renegotiating the Celebration Bowl
“We’ve played five Celebration Bowls now and the MEAC leads 4-1. Obviously, A&T has had four victories, but we have other programs that are very good as well.”
On Certainty of Schools Remaining with the MEAC
“I think that we have to realize the elite programs that are leaving the MEAC, but we have some elite programs that are remaining. But you have to understand, where did that elite program get to be elite from? They got to be elite in the MEAC. And other conferences have seen that and they want to come in and obviously ask our institutions if they are interested in joining their conferences. But the facts of the matter still remain that those institutions, as you all have indicated, that those elite programs that are elite in the MEAC got to be elite in the MEAC, so let’s not lose fact of that.”
On MEAC Revenue Distribution
“Obviously the more institutions you have, the revenue distribution for institutions will be adjusted to reflect the formula. Most of the time, the more institutions you have, unless you have significantly more revenue, then each institution’s revenue will decrease. So when you lose institutions, it will increase the financial distribution for the remaining members of our conference. Conservatively speaking, during my 18 years as commissioner, we have distributed over $35 million back to our member institutions.”
For 11 institutions, that math equals to about $174,767 per year per school over the last 18 years. According to the MEAC’s most recent available tax filing, the conference’s total revenue dropped by more than $1.8 million between 2017 and 2018, while total revenue for the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the new home of Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman University, increased revenues by more than $1.7 million over the same period.
Of the eight schools currently slated for MEAC membership beyond 2021, only six play football. Only two (North Carolina Central University and Norfolk State University) have recent success in men’s basketball. Those two sports are the primary drivers of revenue for their own institutional athletic offerings, and for the conference’s shared revenue model.
Seemingly, the MEAC struggled to ink lucrative television, apparel and sponsorship deals with its most powerful sports brands under the conference umbrella; so where is the brand resonance now that the conference’s most reliable championship contenders, best marching bands, and most active and geographically dispersed fan bases have bolted for other leagues?
It is no coincidence that the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association released its five-year strategic plan just days after the MEAC’s defection doomsday and that the plan is dotted with references to building resources for branding and academic support. There is every reason for schools like Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to consider Division II membership over transitions to predominantly white conferences with no rivalries, no immediate chance for competitive advantage in recruiting, and no real sign of community support.
The question is not if the MEAC will remain as a viable Division I conference as member schools approach the last hours before the July 1 deadline to affirm staying or going; it is that Thomas himself has made the case for why the conference will not be viable.
The numbers on revenue, the cavalier approach to conference elitism, and the dishonesty about the strength of the remaining programs doesn’t speak well to the MEAC’s capacity to attract other institutions or to keep their current roster intact.
The MEAC is in trouble, and you only need to hear from the commissioner to understand just how bad things really are.
