Steady decreases in state funding have prompted NCCU to rely more on alternative funding sources to make ends meet.

NCCU’s current financial situation reflects a national trend: State supported schools are turning to private funding as states cut back support.

Besides the budget cuts, the current student credit hour state funding model hasn’t helped.

This year the university did not meet the enrollment goal set by the funding model, which determines the size of the state appropriation by calculating three components: the number of credit hours taught, the course type and university classification.

But the state held NCCU “harmless” for not meeting its enrollment goals so the university didn’t lose the funding it would have this year.

Currently the state appropriation is NCCU’s largest source of revenue; it makes up about $45 million, or 51 percent of the university’s budget. Tuition and fees contribute about $10 million, or about 11 percent of the budget.

State funding has always been low, but state legislative reductions of about $1 million and recent callbacks of over $1 million make it more important for NCCU to turn to alternative funding.

“They really have to turn to external funding sources,” said Lillie Holloway, director of the annual fund. “We’ve always known that, but we’ve always had a little state money to help things. It’s imperative that we get more money now with the cuts. It’s crucial.”

The university’s greater reliance on alternative funding sources means that some revenue departments have to work harder to provide the funds needed to serve students.

At the Office of Sponsored Research, awards assistant Fred Click said he reviews faculty grant proposals and informs faculty about new funding sources.

As the university faces cuts, grants could play an important role funding academic departments.

If written and researched well, program infrastructure grants can provide academic departments funding for equipment, supplies, travel and personnel.

A program infrastructure allowance within a Department of Defense research grant helped associate physics professor Branislav Vlahovic purchase sophisticated optical laser equipment the university would not have been able to afford otherwise.

The equipment he purchased ranged in price from $100,000-$500,000. Vlahovic used the equipment in classes. Without the equipment, Vlahovic said his students would be at a disadvantage compared to students at research universities.

“How can students learn about [such equipment] if they never saw one?” Vlahovic asked. “Until now students here didn’t have that opportunity. They really improve their knowledge having that here.”

Despite the potential of grant proposals to enhance student learning, Click says that the challenge his department faces is getting faculty to write grants.

“We send information to departments for faculty to apply,” Click said. “If they have time to do it, they can do it. It’s up to them.”

Corporate and Foundations Relations will seek partnerships with corporations more aggressively by working with a wider spectrum of corporations, said Susan Hester, director of corporate and foundation relations.

“We are more aggressive in going after private sources,” Hester said. “We’re not just looking in our back yard, but we are going national, regional and global.”

As the threat of more state cuts linger, corporate partnerships have the potential to both enhance student learning and attract students to NCCU.

Partnerships could provide the university with visiting professorships, lectures, internships and unrestricted funds.

Hester said one of the challenges she faces is convincing some corporations that NCCU is a sound investment.

“A lot of people don’t know what NCCU has to offer. We have to go and market an image of the university,” Hester said.

At the fall industry summit, 84 corporations visited NCCU to talk with administrators and faculty about how corporations could help the university.

Lillie Holloway, director of the Annual Fund, said that Alumni Affairs is aggressively seeking scholarship dollars from alumni and friends. The goal is to increase enrollment, which would increase the state appropriation, and to compete with other universities for top students, something that NCCU couldn’t do in the past.

“How do we compete with other schools for students?” Holloway asked. “We have had situations where we just weren’t able to offer the packages that other universities have.”

Holloway says that Alumni Affairs has been successful in getting alumni to give to scholarships; the challenge is getting people to give in the first place. Alumni Affairs plans to increase alumni contributions 200 percent.

One of the ways to make this happen is through alumni receptions. At receptions, the chancellor talks to alumni about his vision to increase enrollment in order to encourage alumni to donate to scholarships.

Holloway says the idea of seeking private funds is not new to NCCU.