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Historic state budget to fund campus revitalization
More than $164 million targets repairs, new construction, state-funded scholarships
By Kristen Blair
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FSU is set to receive more than $164 million in new funds from the state budget, passed by lawmakers and signed by Governor Cooper the week before Thanksgiving. The budget is historic in its capacity to promote institutional uplift.
“I am both overjoyed and humbled for FSU. This support that we will be receiving has been a long time coming. For the first time in over 35 years, the North Carolina state budget puts Fayetteville State University in a position to make a quantum leap in educating our future leaders,” said Darrell T. Allison, FSU Chancellor. “This unprecedented support will assure our success for generations to come.”
New dollars include $38.85 million for repairs and renovations (R&R) as well as $113 million in total capital construction funds for a College of Education building, residence hall, and parking deck. In addition, the budget allocates $11.5 million in recurring funds for FSU to join the NC Promise Tuition Plan, a state-funded scholarship program. Elsewhere, NC Promise has helped drive enrollment growth.
What will these resources mean for FSU at this moment in time? “We will have the opportunity to have revitalization,” said North Carolina Rep. Marvin Lucas, an FSU alumnus and 11-term lawmaker from Cumberland County, representing House District 42.
A strong FSU supporter who enrolled at the university in 1960 as a college freshman, Rep. Lucas understands the impact of this budget historically. “This is one of the most beneficial infusions of finances for the university,” added Rep. Lucas. “Without question, the morale should escalate, [with FSU] finally given the opportunity to have recognition from a national perspective.”
No cranes on campus— for a decade
Such budgetary largesse is highly unusual; funding for FSU has trailed other institutions for years. In 201920, FSU ranked near the bottom among UNC System institutions in state appropriations revenue as well as equipment and capital expenditures, according to system data. Meanwhile, institutional impacts have accrued.
FSU “is the second oldest in the UNC System; it’s the oldest HBCU in the system,” said Carlton Spellman, FSU Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance. “Historically, our buildings have not been kept up as well as we would like, mainly due … to resources and the lack thereof.”
Deferred maintenance has taken a toll. According to a 2018 facilities inventory and utilization study of the UNC System, 87 percent of FSU square footage was deemed “unsatisfactory”—the highest of any UNC institution.
Compounding campus challenges: FSU has been passed over time and again for capital funds. “For 22 of the last 30 years, Fayetteville State has gotten no money in the capital budget, really, which is unheard of,” said Wendell Phillips, FSU Vice Chancellor for External Affairs and Military Relations. FSU’s largest capital appropriation, $8.9 million, occurred in the early ‘90s, said Phillips.
Visible emblems of expansion have been missing: “There has not been a crane on this campus in over 10 years,” added Phillips.
On the road to rehabilitation and renewal
Times are changing. The $38.85 million in R&R funds will enable FSU to move beyond patchwork repairs to comprehensive renewal. On the R&R list: 17 projects, including ongoing renovation of the Lyons Science Center, targeted renovations of the A.B. Rosenthal and Helen T. Chick buildings, electrical infrastructure repairs, roof replacements, and more.
And the cranes? Get ready: They’re coming to campus. The parking deck project will launch first, said Jon Parsons, FSU Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Management. Design plans for the residence hall and College of Education building will take shape soon.
The new College of Education building has the unique capacity to bring FSU full circle, serving as an anchor to memory and a lodestar for the future. Historically, FSU was “known as one of the premier teaching institutions, especially in the minority community,” said Rep. Lucas, a former principal who majored in English and was part of FSU’s first secondary class, building on the institution’s reputation as an elementary training institution.
Chancellor Darrell T. Allison, J.D.
The Chancellor celebrated the historic state budget allocation with students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Photography by Ezekiel Best.
Yet, in recent years, FSU’s education program has dwindled, Rep. Lucas said.
A physical reset, then, is timely. “One of the main things we stood on from a historical standpoint was … educating the educators,” affirmed Phillips. “There’s something to be said for going back to your roots and rethinking it—and doing it in a state-of-theart building with state-of-the-art resources—the ability to have an ‘all in one’ [approach] when it comes to education.”
The current College of Education building houses day care and early college programs, in addition to college classrooms for aspiring teachers. The battered building will go, but the educational model it birthed will endure. That model represents a “diapers to diplomas” approach to education, Phillips observed wryly.
Students make their way across campus.
Photography by Cindy Burnham.
About those diapers: It might be time to shore up supplies. Plans are in the works to “double the size and the capacity of the day care in the new building,” said Parsons, with greater opportunities to serve students and the community.
NC Promise: Impacting enrollment and funding for years to come
Perhaps one of the most significant investments FSU is making in terms of sustainability is joining the NC Promise Tuition Plan. The program is expected to impact FSU’s recruitment, enrollment, retention, enterprise services, state funding, and more—for years to come.
“It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” said Spellman.
Passed by the legislature in 2016, NC Promise reduces the cost of tuition for all students at participating institutions by roughly two-thirds. Instate students pay $500 a semester in tuition instead of around $1,500; outof-state students pay $2,500 instead of $7,295. The program functions as a scholarship, with the state covering the difference between the institution’s tuition sticker price and the fixed rate of tuition for students. Participating universities experience no reduction in tuition revenue.
Three UNC System institutions made up the inaugural NC Promise cohort: Western Carolina University, UNC-Pembroke, and Elizabeth City State University. FSU was slated to be part of the inaugural group, given its location in the Sandhills region, but ultimately was left out.
At other schools, NC Promise has helped drive enrollment. At UNC Pembroke, for instance, enrollment rose 7.3 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to a UNC System news release. At Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), annual enrollment rose 13.2 percent last year—the highest percentage increase of any UNC System school. This year, enrollment increases have been more modest, but ECSU’s growth was still over three times higher than the UNC System’s overall growth.
NC Promise won’t start at FSU until fall 2022, Rep. Lucas noted, but it should “pay untold dividends for families with financial difficulties.” The program will help FSU compete with universities in the eastern part of the state, he added. “This makes the playing field with them more level.”
The program should also help with out-of-state recruitment. “For enrollment purposes, it’s going to be huge,” Spellman affirmed. NC Promise “gives our various programs and our recruiters the opportunity to go out and be more competitive when they’re offering scholarship dollars.”
The program should also facilitate retention and graduation. It will reduce outstanding balances, helping in-state students stay on track to graduate, Spellman noted.
Finally, NC Promise is expected to increase FSU’s enrollment of rural, low-income, and military students. Boosting enrollments among these student populations aligns with institutional priorities and maximizes affordability and access. Higher overall enrollments also impact future state appropriations, which rise with enrollment growth.
“Before now, [NC Promise] was a missed opportunity,” Phillips said. “Lightning doesn’t usually strike twice in the same place. But we want to be able to harness it this time and use that electricity to energize this university, and in turn, the community and the Sandhills region in general.”
Ultimately, all of this energy and revitalization on campus should raise sights—and hopes.
“We look forward to seeing a lot of things happen,” said Rep. Lucas. “This is an opportunity to flourish.”
