Board of Trustees

Administrative Divisions

Chancellor's Update

September 2000

by Dr. John W. Bardo -- jbardo@wcu.edu

I hope your semester is going well. This is the first in a series of updates this fall that will deal with issues of enrollment and retention. To assure that all of us share a common understanding of the issues, I thought it would be helpful to describe the budget process by which the University gains-or loses-faculty positions and academic support budgets. There seems to be some confusion with regard to this matter and, as the year progresses, it will be increasingly important that it be clear.

Before delving into the question of how faculty positions are funded, I thought you might be interested in our current enrollment.

FALL ENROLLMENT

We have now passed the tenth class day, and we have "frozen" the fall enrollment file. Officially, Western has 6,449 students-up from 6,353 last fall. There is a significant increase in the number of freshmen (1,216 versus 1,156) and the class is, academically, the best prepared in the University's history. The average SAT for freshmen this fall is 1005, and the average high school GPA is 3.17. The Honors College enrolled 144 new students with an average SAT of 1222 and an average high school weighted GPA above 4.0.

This average SAT represents a major milestone for Western. It is the first time that the SAT has been above 1000, and it marks an increase of forty points in the average SAT since 1996. Because of your hard work, Western is able to attract a much better student. This represents an exciting opportunity for the University.

Other sources of new enrollment include transfers, students returning after an interruption of enrollment, graduate students, and special students. The number of transfers is up slightly (411 versus 409), and the number of returning students is up significantly (267 versus 148 last year). Graduate student headcount numbers are exactly the same as last fall (1,001), but the number of credit hours for which they are registered is slightly lower. The special student headcount increased from 98 to 140.

Overall, Western has attracted a net of 223 new students over last year. This is a major accomplishment by our Office of Admissions. Unfortunately, this major gain was offset by a decline in continuing undergraduate students (minus 127).

The work by Academic Support Services and Student Affairs with freshman retention seems to have paid some dividends. Retention is up from 69.5 percent to 71.1 percent. While this increase in freshman retention is a step in the right direction, our retention rate still lags our own historical highs and comparable rates in the UNC system.

All in all, enrollment trends are encouraging, and they indicate that, if we address the critical issues in retention, we should be able to grow as expected.

FACULTY POSITIONS AND ENROLLMENT SPECIFICS

In my opening address, I discussed briefly the relationship between faculty positions and student enrollment. One of the questions I have heard on campus this fall involves why we have been able to add staff positions for advisers and the like, but have not been able to add faculty positions. This is a good question, and it relates directly to enrollment.

Because the UNC system considers Western to be a growth institution, we were asked (along with the other growth schools) to develop a proposal for the resources needed to help us grow. Rick Collings coordinated preparation of the proposal, and he requested significant numbers of faculty positions, some staff positions, and support funding. This proposal was reviewed by UNC-General Administration, and most of the requested faculty positions were not funded. Instead, we were advised that program start-up funds (when available) or enrollment growth funds should be the source of new faculty positions. General Administration did choose, however, to fund most of the staff positions requested.

Since start-up funds for new programs were not made available in the legislative session, any new faculty positions would have to come from enrollment growth. Currently, because of willingness of the UNC system to foster Western's growth, more faculty positions have been allocated to the University than our enrollment justifies. This is a critical point. Because officials at General Administration are willing to work with Western to help us grow, they have "held us harmless" with regard to faculty positions, even though the number of positions we now have exceeds the number we should have, given our enrollment. This is where the conversation gets somewhat technical.

North Carolina, like many other states, funds faculty positions on credit hour production. (Other components of the University budget follow this model, but not as directly). For the 2000-2001 academic year, Western is expected to enroll sufficient students to produce 162,566 credit hours. The number of faculty positions allocated to us is the number that the state considers adequate to teach those students. To achieve the budgeted target, our fall enrollment would need to be approximately 85,336 credit hours. Our actual fall enrollment is 82,671 credit hours.

The State's budget officers know that hitting the exact targeted number of credit hours is very difficult, so they allow universities a margin of plus or minus two percent from the budgeted number of credit hours with no impact on faculty positions. That is, if credit hours are slightly higher than budgeted, the University gets no new positions; if it is slightly lower, there are no budget cuts. In the vernacular of higher education budgeting in North Carolina, this is called the "funding band." If a university's enrollment falls below the "funding band," it should expect to suffer a budget cut. If it exceeds the "funding band," more faculty positions are allocated in the next budget year (assuming sufficient State revenues and customary legislative action).

Over the last twenty years, there have been many times that Western has not made the "funding band." In previous years, Academic Affairs generally kept a few positions in reserve to return to the state when we did not make our budgeted enrollment. However, presently, this reserve is being fully utilized to maximize the number of positions that can help generate enrollment.

Unfortunately, again this year, it is doubtful that we will make the "funding band." To reach the band, our spring enrollment would have to generate 2,827 more student credit hours than can be expected based on historical fall to spring ratios. Unless there is a significant change in enroll-ment and retention patterns, this is not likely to be accomplished.

The Board of Governors and General Administration have been very willing to work with us to overcome constraints to our enrollment growth. It is increasingly apparent that, in addition to enrolling more new students, better retention of enrolled students is the critical hurdle we must clear. Because General Administration and the Board of Governors are willing to again "hold harmless" our enrollment-driven budget, you have the opportunity to address the retention issue without experiencing a reduction in the number of faculty positions this academic year. But, it is doubtful that we can continue to rely on the willingness of GA and the Board to hold us harmless, so there is, indeed, urgency in solving this problem.

I realize this update is very technical, but I feel it is important that we begin this discussion of retention with a common understanding of why faculty positions are tied so closely to the number of student credit hours.