Trustees receive updates on COVID-19, enrollment

As East Carolina University concludes the third week of classes of the fall semester and prepares for the first home football game of the 2021-22 season, the board of trustees and its committees met Thursday and Friday to receive updates on the university’s operations and outlook.

Chancellor Philip Rogers provided information about ongoing efforts to prevent the spread and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on ECU’s campus.

“I want to once again strongly and unequivocally encourage all members of our campus community to get vaccinated,” he said.

The university has reached out to students in a number of ways, including social media, to encourage vaccination, he said. There has also been an increase in PCR testing within the surveillance testing program.

Chancellor Philip Rogers gives a report during the ECU Board of Trustees meeting Friday. (ECU photo by Rhett Butler)

“If we’ve learned anything over the last year related to this virus, it is that we can indeed manage through it with the right community expectations and mitigations — and the leading strategies that will help us thrive are masks and vaccines,” he said.

Interim Provost Grant Hayes and Ying Zhou, director of institutional planning, assessment and research, presented the preliminary enrollment numbers for the 2021-22 academic year as of census day, Sept. 3.

Total enrollment is 28,005, a decrease of 2.8% from the previous academic year. The overall decline reflected drops in both undergraduate and graduate enrollment, as well as retention. Enrollment declined despite increases in applications and admissions, Zhou said.

Trustee Tom Furr asked Hayes about institutional efforts to increase enrollment, and Hayes said the issue is a high priority and has the complete attention and focus of administrators. As universities statewide and nationwide face a decrease in the number of traditional college-age students, ECU must expand its market and attract more out-of-state, adult and international students, he said. The university is also making a concerted effort to recruit students with existing college credits to complete their degrees.

Zhou pointed to bright spots in the enrollment picture, including strong growth in programs such as entrepreneurship and supply chain management, steady enrollment in traditional programs such as biology and psychology, and the strong performance of health sciences programs such as nursing. The diversity of the student body has increased in recent years as well, she said.

“This is a moment to choose to view this as an opportunity for ECU and we will execute our enrollment strategies with the mission at the center, focused on the future, and will do so by challenging ourselves to be innovative in this space,” Rogers told the board. “The provost has already commissioned a careful analysis of our outcomes. He will bring to this board a deep dive on enrollment during your lunch session next meeting. While this analysis will help inform some of our actions, we must also drive change now. Time is not to waste — especially in this competitive market.”

During the athletics and advancement committee meeting, Athletic Director Jon Gilbert said his department tightened its belt in the recently completed fiscal year, including staff pay cuts and furloughs, to cut an expected $20 million deficit to just $4 million. He also noted that the Pirate Club is back to being fully staffed.

Gilbert added that he expects a crowd of around 40,000 at the first home football game on Saturday, and that it will include an extensive 9/11 tribute. In regards to COVID-19, he said 123 out of 125 football players have been vaccinated.

Gilbert also said approximately 60 student-athletes have submitted paperwork to the department for name-image-likeness deals, most for social media promotions such as discounts.

Chris Dyba, vice chancellor for university advancement, updated the committee on ECU Foundation fundraising. (ECU photo by Cliff Hollis)

Chris Dyba, vice chancellor for university advancement, updated the committee on ECU Foundation fundraising. In the first two months of the fiscal year that began in July, main campus raised approximately $4.8 million, and the health sciences campus raised $783,000.

Trustees also approved the nomination of John May ’93 of Chicago to the ECU endowment board. May is founder and managing partner of CORE Industrial Partners, an investment firm.

During the finance and facilities committee meeting, Stephanie Coleman, vice chancellor of administration and finance, updated members on budget matters. She said student affairs had a $13 million deficit for fiscal year 2021, primarily because of losses in housing and dining caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund money helped offset those losses and played a role in a $32 million increase in the unrestricted fund balance.

As for tuition, Coleman had predicted a $4.9 million decrease for August, but she said the university was within about $1 million in year over year tuition.

“I was anticipating more scheduling cancellations than actually occurred,” Coleman said. “We were able to communicate with students and get in touch with them, so we were able to save schedules and get payments made, so that was a plus with our employees reaching out to students.”

The committee and the full board approved $500,000 in advance planning funding for HVAC repairs and gym floor replacement at the Eakin Student Recreation Center. The total proposed budget for the repairs is $4.2 million. Bill Bagnell, associate vice chancellor for campus operations, said two HVAC units are about 25 years old and that the gym floor has warped in areas because of the lack of humidity control over the years.

Bagnell also told members that the new Life Sciences and Biotechnology Center building is still on track to be completed by Oct. 18, though some delays in delivery of materials could change the date. He also said roof replacement and other renovations to Mendenhall are estimated to be completed by February, while work to create the Isley Innovation Hub, located where the student store used to be in Wright Place, is on target to be completed in November.

In other matters, Bill Koch, associate vice chancellor for campus safety and auxiliary services, gave a report on Barnes and Noble College taking over operations of the Dowdy Student Stores. He said staffing had been an issue during COVID-19 but had gotten better since the fall semester began. Chelsea Havner, general manager of the store, said new apparel was coming and that retail sites in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium would be improved in time for football season. She said two merchandise trailers and three booths will be open, and a new location in TowneBank Tower will also operate.

The next scheduled meeting of the ECU Board of Trustees will be Nov. 11-12.

ECU Board of Visitors Chair Wanda Montano presents an overview of the board’s mission and initiatives. (ECU photo by Rhett Butler)