The Facts: The University’s core mission entails significant funding requirements. In the past, the University has primarily relied on the very generous funding from the state. As the recession dried up the state’s revenue, our funding also dramatically decreased. The lack of outside funding: grants, donations, etc., makes the University’s funding requirements even harder to achieve.
Our Opinion: The University must find outside revenue sources to supplement state funding and tuition. A new capital campaign would be an excellent step in the right direction.
To support the development of schools that emphasized training in agriculture and mechanic arts, Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act into law in 1862. This provision enabled the state of North Carolina to receive the land on which N.C. State was founded.
Ever since the state set down this cornerstone, NCSU has been a University dedicated to the development of agriculture, engineering, design and textiles practices. These functions have been and continue to strive toward the state statutes of accessibility and affordability.
This incredible legacy of innovation is being put at stake by the lack of outside support to the University’s total budget.
In recent years, while many other nationally renowned land-grant institutions have relentlessly sought outside grants and donations to continue their academic functions, NCSU has fallen behind.
The University receives a remarkably generous 45 percent of its funding from the General Assembly. This is much higher than our equivalent peers and puts the University’s academic mission in a precarious situation as the state’s finances worsen.
As a matter of comparison, evaluate Virginia Tech’s financing. As a fellow Atlantic Coast Conference school and land-grant university, VT is similar to NCSU in many ways. In national rankings, the two universities generally receive similar markings. The difference lies in the fact that VT only receives 29 percent of its total budget from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
As the economic crisis worsens and VT receives less state funding, its academic programs are not affected as much as NCSU’s will be.
This failure has been caused by an over-reliance on the munificent support of the state of North Carolina. In the past — when the state was economically stable — the problem was easily, and regrettably, ignored.
Seeking outside funding is not counter-intuitive to our role as a land-grant institution, but is simply a logical step in ensuring the viability of our essential mission to the state.
Chancellor Woodward suggested a new capital campaign at the campus budget forum this past Thursday. Not only is this measure essential, but it needs to be the first step in an effort by the campus administration to recruit the sort of outside funding this sort of research institution deserves and requires.
We have an extraordinary tradition to uphold at this University. Moderated outside funding is a necessary step in ensuring that we can emerge from this budget crisis strong and focused on those original land-grant aims.
