University Day Remarks 2025
Good morning, colleagues. What an informative and valuable conversation as we launch a new academic semester.
President Hans, thank you once again for your steady and thoughtful leadership of the UNC System during this transformative period for American higher education. We’re honored to have you with us today and I am personally grateful for your steadfast advocacy for ECU and this region.
The President provided us with a framework today that I will build upon as we consider the future together.
I’ve reflected a lot lately on how we will boldly fulfill our purpose amid all the headwinds we face in the higher education landscape – with a special focus on what actions must we take now to evolve as an institution and reposition our many assets to deliver on our mission in the next decade and beyond.
You’ve already heard today some of our collective achievements since the implementation of our strategic plan. At the core of all our accomplishments lies our mission: to serve as a national model for student success, public service, and regional transformation.
Simply stated, ECU exists to serve.
Since my return to ECU, I have consistently underscored the significance of placing the mission at the core of all our endeavors. Our students, our region, and our state depend on our tenacious and spirited pursuit of our aspirations.
Throughout our history and at every pivotal juncture in ECU’s trajectory, when guided by our mission, we have evolved and we have overcome the challenges of the time, always advancing to expand access and make a difference in the communities we serve.
Without fail whenever I meet with long serving members of our faculty or staff, most tell me what keeps them at ECU is the mission and the people they work with each day.
Students who choose ECU to pursue their aspirations often recount their first campus visit. Experiencing a place that is both new and immediately familiar. A place with heart and passion. An instantaneous understanding that our faculty and staff are invested in their success. ECU is a large and complex university, but we function like a small community, bound by a common purpose.
As we adapt, I am confident the essence of who we are will not change.
So much has been made in recent years of the public perceptions of higher education. In a recent report titled “Varying Degrees 2025: Americans Find Common Ground in Higher Education,” the findings indicate more agreement than we might otherwise imagine in this era of hyper polarization.
Seventy-three percent of Americans believe college is worth the investment. Yet, at the same time, half of those surveyed believe college is unaffordable.
We know the college enrollment rates of high school graduates are declining, so the challenge for us is how square this trend with the ongoing belief in our value as a public institution.
Perhaps the national debate isn’t if a degree or credential is a good investment, but instead a dialogue focused on how we ensure we remain affordable, accessible, and relevant in an environment of enrollment shifts, fiscal pressures, and technology innovations.
As you heard earlier, future focused and innovation driven isn’t simply a title for our strategic plan. It’s how we do business here at ECU. It is how we must operate and adapt to boldly pursue our mission with a financial strategy that is proactive, stable, and sustainable.
In recent years we’ve carefully managed the fiscal adjustments that were prompted by changes in enrollment. Our approach has ranged from the reduction of centralized resources to across-the-board divisional cuts.
The reality is the next phase of this work must be more strategic. We must both identify financial savings to meet the realities of the changing enrollment landscape, while also realigning ongoing investments into the programs that our future students demand. This work is difficult, yet we have a responsibility to ensure we are well positioned for the future.
For example, our world class nursing program has unmet demand, annually turning away well qualified students. The nursing shortage is real and well known. When you need a nurse, you want it to be a Pirate nurse, so we have an opportunity to leverage excellence in response to a need. Strategic investments in this program – and others that drive growth – must be a priority for ECU, and we can help fuel such an expansion through a pool of strategic reinvestment resources.
Like so many other colleges and universities across our nation, we’ve reached a moment that requires us to be more focused. We cannot be all things to all people, and we cannot do more with less.
Alignment of programs, structures, and services with enrollment and revenue forecasts is necessary to deliver on the expectations of those who invest in our university.
Our largest source of revenue is from state appropriations at 32%. The other revenue categories are patient services (22%), tuition and fees (17%), sales and services (9%) and other, which includes gifts, grants, contracts, student financial aid, and so on. (20%).
The enrollment funding formula is based on the change in North Carolina resident student credit hours over a calendar year. This means that the more students from North Carolina who we enroll and who complete credit hours, the more appropriations we get allocated from the state. Resident students also generate tuition and fee dollars that fund the university.
Nonresident student credit hours generate tuition and fee dollars.
We also have in the financial mix our Flight Path online programs in partnership with Project Kitty Hawk (PKH). These programs generate off model revenue.
Focusing only on the NC resident credit hour change, using calendar year 2023 resident credit hour data (think of these as funded credit hours) compared to 2024, ECU yielded 11,590 fewer funded credit hours, resulting in a $4.2 million recurring reduction for this fiscal year- (2026).
The fiscal year 2027 budget adjustment won’t be known until after we complete the fall 2025 semester, but we already forecast another similar permanent reduction.
It is important to realize under the funding formula we can have an enrollment increase in terms of headcount and that increase can be driven by success in the Flight Path program enrollments, but at the same time experience a reduction in our state appropriations.
I’ve said for some time that we need to diversify our enrollment portfolio. There is tremendous pressure on institutions with a similar profile to ECU, especially those in more rural settings. Flagships are growing class size and dipping into waitlists later in the enrollment cycle. Some campuses have access to more scholarship dollars as recruiting incentives; we see this approach from schools across the Southeast recruiting away NC students. Urban campuses and those with geographic advantages are growing. And the enrollment cliff is upon us.
While the North Carolina projections for the number of high school graduates are more positive over the next 15-20 years compared to other regions of the country, the state won’t experience a steady growth curve. In fact, based on forecasts it will be 2034 before the total NC high school graduate pool matches the fall 2025 pool. We also know across North Carolina that population growth will continue to be heavily concentrated in urban areas.
The out-of-state markets we have historically relied upon have less favorable forecasts than North Carolina. And if you review the top seven out of state markets for ECU, all are forecasted to be negative in the years ahead.
Now, there is some good news for us on the enrollment front in terms of Flight Path programs. After repayment of initial tech startup costs funded through PKH grants, we will have a new stream of revenue from enrollments in these programs.
So, what does this mean? From an enrollment and fiscal health perspective, it is important that our campus leverage our historic leadership in online education in North Carolina and the marketing and tech advantages provided by PKH such that we are aggressive in this market.
The opportunity to maintain the excellence of our on-campus experience and grow our national online brand is before us. If we aren’t leaders in this market, others will capitalize, and we will lose another key enrollment lever. Everyone is looking to the online post-traditional, some college no degree, market to strategically grow.
Adding to the uncertainty of enrollment and funding outcomes, we must also adapt to fluctuations in federal and state budgets, as well as changes in the federal research space, including our F&A funding. Fortunately, our historic success in the area of applied research – often conducted to solve real world challenges – may prove to be an advantage when evaluating the emerging priorities of federal agencies.
Let me be clear, we are not at a moment of crisis. But we are a campus that knows how to strategically prepare for the future. We are a campus that knows how to control its own destiny. We are a campus with a high ROI, with a R1 portfolio, excellent undergraduate and graduate programs, and we remain a beacon of hope and opportunity in the region we serve.
This is a moment, however, to reposition resources so that we shape our own future. If we don’t take the reins proactively, then someone will take them for us – and if we act now, we will be better positioned for sustained excellence in the future.
Advancing our mission and positioning ECU for 2030 and beyond requires us to look across the university, as well as take consequential and decisive action.
Today I am announcing that the University is embarking on an effort to identify $25 million worth of cost savings and efficiencies over the next three years for potential permanent budget cuts. Much of the savings will come through academic program optimization and organizational adjustments. Additionally, we will need to strategically realign resources for reinvestments in programs with high student demand.
This work is already underway, including the first phase of academic program review and emerging plans to consolidate our libraries into one unit. You know the work to reorganize ITCS and POSO continues, and we will achieve savings as part of both endeavors.
We are launching this initiative immediately and, in two years, we will evaluate our progress in the context at that timeupdate our projections, and determine if the initial goal is sufficient to reposition ourselves and advance the goals of our strategic plan. Remember that each of you has a role to play in ensuring that we achieve this financial target – student retention and recruitment, for example, are key financial drivers to manage the moment and will be important factors in determining whether we need to revise and increase the $25 million target two years from now.
My comments today are designed and intended to be honest about our realities; while at the same time offering a clear vision for how to make that reality better for all of us in the long-run. It will not be easy, but the work ahead is non-negotiable for our future and we will approach it with the seriousness and courage required to strategically adapt, adjust, and innovate as a modern public research university of the future!
What gives me confidence in the future is all of you. ECU’s academic brand is on the rise, our programs have a high ROI, we are an R1 institution with a focus on improving the lives of our citizens and advancing our communities. Building on our momentum requires us to evolve, as we have throughout our history.
Together with the determination and grit that are hallmarks of our culture, we will continue to deliver on our promises to those we serve. Thank you very much for your time today.