ECU and Craven address teacher shortage

(Dec. 10, 2001)   —   East Carolina University and Craven Community College, in an effort to help address the growing shortage of public school teachers in North Carolina, have agreed to establish a “hub” at the Craven campus in New Bern to smooth the way for training new teachers.

The hub is designed to serve community college students from Craven, Carteret, Pamlico, Beaufort and Onslow counties. It will allow potential education majors in those locations to continue as wage earners while they prepare for new careers as teachers.

An agreement to cooperate on the project was signed after the ECU Board of Trustees meeting in Greenville on Friday (Dec. 7) by ECU Chancellor William V. Muse and Craven Community College President Lewis S. Redd.

Under the agreement, CCC will provide office, classroom and library space. ECU will assign a counselor to the hub to help minimize hurdles for community college students transferring to the campus. ECU faculty members will provide on-site instruction in New Bern as well as distance-education courses.

Muse said, “ECU, as we all know, was founded as a teachers college. Throughout its history, the training of teachers has been central to ECU’s mission. That is a heritage about which we should be proud because there is nothing more important in our society than effective teaching.” He praised CCC officials for their role in the new project.

ECU hopes to establish three additional hubs to work with community colleges throughout eastern North Carolina.

North Carolina’s projected enrollment growth in public schools is the fourth largest in the nation and it is expected that the state will need 80,000 new teachers in the next 10 years. That is roughly equal to the number of teachers in classrooms in the state today.