East Carolina College; position paper on university status

This document describes the reasons why East Carolina should be given university status. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.

Citation for this article is: East Carolina College: Position Paper on University Status.

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EAST CAROLINA SERVES THE EAST AND THE STATE

"The people of Eastern North Carolina look to East Carolina College, the State's third largest and fastest growing public institution of higher learning, already organized into seven schools, and they say, 'Here already stands a university. Why not then declare it so?'" With these words, Leo W. Jenkins began the current discussion over converting East Carolina College into an independent state university. But long before these words were spoken, progress toward university status at East Carolina College was well under way.

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Another University for North Carolina

The State's needs in higher education have already been summed up this way in the report of the Carlyle Commission: "We in North Carolina must, in short, prepare more of the teachers for our own colleges, both public and private, and especially for the system of comprehensive community colleges which this mission is proposing." Since the training of such teachers can only be done in well-staffed graduate schools, the need for such schools is clear.

The President's Council on Education Beyond the High School predicted that the shortage of college teachers will become a "cultural bottleneck," because an estimated 8.7 million college students by 1974 will require an annual recruitment of 15,000 to 22,500 new teachers. (Dr. Horace Hamilton of North Carolina State University estimates an increase of 6,000 students per year for the next ten years in North Carolina's institutions for higher education.) The nation's graduate schools are producing more potential college professors each year, but only about half of them are expected to go into teaching.

The statistics clearly show that North Carolina needs another university.

A University for the East

The needs of the East are the needs of the whole State of North Carolina; they cannot be separated.

Perhaps Eastern North Carolina has a vaster area of undeveloped resources and a greater reservoir of untapped creative potential in human terms than any other section of the State. It would be a most costly negligence on our part to fail in the effort toward the development of this potential. The increasing complexity of mid-twentieth century life, both technically and culturally, demands the expansion of all our intellectual disciplines.

A university based in the East could inspire both initiative and vision. The functioning university could serve the East as a focus for education and also for the development of industry and commerce. Education and research are two keys to regional development.

Just as a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, so the State is no stronger than its least developed parts. The establishment of a university to lead in the development in the East will inevitably contribute to the human resources of the whole state.

Already A University

By any of the customary criteria for calling an institution a university, East Carolina is already a university.

By definition, a college is concerned chiefly with a four-year course of general study leading to a bachelor's degree. In the United States, some college's have provided liberal arts training and some have prepared teachers.

A university is broader in scope; its concern is more universal, and in structure it typically comprises a college of arts and sciences and one or more professional schools. The typical university has a graduate program, but it does not necessarily offer graduate work at the doctoral level.

In essence, the request of the East is for authorization to capitalize the "u" and make it University.

Academic Programs

Beginning with a program limited to teacher training, East Carolina has now expanded its academic programs to include the following schools:

• Art
• Arts and Sciences
• Business
• Education
• Graduate
• Music
• Nursing

Undergraduate majors are offered in the following areas:

Art	Biology	Business	Chemistry
Drama and Speech	Education	English	Foreign Languages
Geography and Geology	Health and Physical Education	History	Home Economics
Industrial and Technical Education	Library Sciences	Mathematics	Medical Technology
Music	Nursing	Philosophy	Physics
Political Science	Psychology	Sociology and Anthropology	Science Education

The Master of Arts Degree is offered in the following areas:

• Art
• Biology
• Business
• English
• Geography
• Health and Physical Education
• History
• Industrial Arts
• Mathematics
• Music
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Science

The Master of Arts in Education is offered in the following areas:

Elementary Education	Guidance	Educational Administration
Speech and Hearing	Supervision	Secondary Education

The Master of Arts Degree in Secondary Education is offered with a major in one or more of the following fields:

Art	Biology	Business	English
Geography	Health and Physical Education	History	Industrial Arts
Library Science	Mathematics	Political Science	Science and Science Education

The following graduate degrees are also offered:

• Master of arts in Clinical Psychology
• Master of Business Administration
• Master of Fine Arts
• Master of Music

East Carolina also offers the Sixth Year Program of Study beyond the master's degree for public school administrators.

Internal Structure

Over fifty state universities have smaller academic structures than East Carolina College. They have smaller schools of arts and sciences, or fewer graduate programs, or fewer professional schools. This group includes the universities of Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Vermont.

Sudent Enrollment

Almost fifty universities have smaller enrollments than East Carolina. Such distinguished private universities as Drew, Colgate, Washington, and Lee, Bucknell, and Rice have enrollments far below that of East Carolina.

Admisions Standards

East Carolina's admission standards are as high as those of any public institution in the State in terms of required scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (College Entrance Examination Board test). Requirements are expected to be raised still higher in the near future.

Library Facilities

The library at East Carolina compares favorably with those of many recently-established universities since 1950, well over half of them had smaller libraries than East Carolina according to a 1964 report.

Of interest to North Carolinians is a comparison of library holdings at East Carolina now and those at the University of North Carolina and Duke in former times. In 1924, when Trinity College became Duke University, it's library contained 87,000 volumes. At the time of consolidation, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had 236,162 volumes.

East Carolina's library in 1966 contained 267,000 bound volumes plus more than 100,000 items in its document collection and over 100,000 volumes in microprint form.

National honor societies have increasingly recognized the academic excellence of the programs at East Carolina College. By the end of 1966, eighteen of them had authorized the establishment of chapters in the following schools and departments:

• Schools
  • Art -- Delta Phi Delta
  • Business -- Pi Omega Pi
  • Music -- Pi Kappa Lambda
    • Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (men)
    • Sigma Alpha Iota (women)
• Departments
  • Drama and Speech -- National Collegiate Players Honorary Dramatic Fraternity
  • English -- Sigma Tau Delta
  • Foreign Languages -- Sigma Pi Alpha
  • Geography and Geology -- Gamma Theta Upsilon
  • History -- Phi Alpha Theta
  • Library Sceince -- Alpha Beta Alpha (National undergraduate Library Science Fraternity)
  • Philosophy -- Phi Sigma Tau
  • Psychology -- Psi Chi
  • Sociology -- Alpha Kappa Delta
  • Industrial and Technical Education -- Epsilon Pi Tau

There are 38 faculty members in the sciences who are organized as a Sigma Xi Club.

There are 41 faculty memebers who are organized as an alumni chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY (1907-1966)

1907 - East Carolina Teachers' Training School established by the Act of the General Assembly

1909 - One and two-year teaching programs

1920 - Four-year curriculum leading to Bachelor of Arts Degree

1921 - Name changed by Act of the General Assembly to East Carolina Teachers College

1929 - Master of Arts Degree

1936 - Extension Division

1941 - Bachelor of Science Degree

1951 - Name changed by Act of General Assembly to East Carolina College

1960 - School of Business and School of Nursing

1961 - Two-year Resident Center, Camp Lejeune

1962 - School of Art and School of Music

1963 - School of Education

1964 - Two-year Resident Center, Cherry Point

1964 - One-year Freshman Center, Undergraduate Evening College, Main Campus

1964 - Developmental Evaluation Clinic

1965 - One-year Freshman Center, Manteo

1965 - School of Arts and Sciences and Eastern North Carolina Development Institute

1966 - Graduate School, Institute of Life Sciences and Community Health

TWENTY YEARS OF GROWTH

Physical and Financial	1946	1966
Buildings	17	48
Operating Budget	$743,296	$10,515,725
Value of Physical Plant	$5,000,000	$33,500,000
Acres of Land	98	300

Student Body	1946	1966
Fall Quarter (on campus)	1,382	9,023
Summer School	567	5,205
Total Enrollment	1,949	14,228

The present student body includes representatives from 94 counties in North Carolina, 40 states and territories, and 6 foreign countries.

Athletic Program

• 1946 Teams
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Football

• 1966 Teams
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Cross-country
  • Football
  • Golf
  • Indoor Track
  • Soccer
  • Swimming
  • Tennis
  • Track
  • Wrestling
• 1966 Clubs
  • Gymnastics
  • Karate
  • Lacrosse
  • Rowing

Faculty	1946	1966
Number	61	448
Proportion with Doctorates and/or Terminal Degrees	29%	51%
Full-Time Employees	149	888
Total Faculty and Full-Time Employees	210	1336

Accreditation

One index of educational quality is the ability of an institution to meet rigid requirements for accreditation by various professional organizations and agencies. Below is the comparison of the growth in excellence experienced at East Carolina College during the past twenty years:

• 1946
  • The American Association of Teachers Colleges
  • The Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools
  • The North Carolina College Conference

• 1966
  • Association of American Colleges
  • The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
  • The North Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities
  • The National Commission on Accrediting
  • The National League for Nursing, Department of Baccalaureate and Higher Degree Programs
  • The National Association of Schools of Art
  • The National Association with Schools of Music
  • National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
  • The National Association of Business Teacher Education
  • The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
  • American Association of University Women
  • The Council of Graduate Schools in the United States
  • National University Extension Association

Number of Degrees Granted	1946	1966
Undergraduate	166	1,128
Graduate	18	207
Total	184	1,335

Types of Degrees Offerred

1946	1966
Bachelor of Arts	Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Science	Bachelor of Science
Master of Arts	Bachelor of Music
	Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
	Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology
	Bachelor of Science in Nursing
	Master of Arts
	Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology
	Master of Arts in Education
	Master of Business Administration
	Master of Fine Arts
	Master of Music

Special Programs

1946	1966
Concert Series	Art Exhibits
Dramatic Productions	Bureau of Business Research
Popular Film Series	College Theater Series
	Contemporary Music Festival
	Developmental Evaluation Clinic
	Eastern North Carolina Development Institute
	Fine Arts Series
	Foreign Film Series
	Lecture Series
	Institute of Life Sciences and Community Health
	National Defense Education Act Institutes
	National Institute of Health Programs
	National Science Foundation Institutes
	Popular Entertainment Series
	Popular Film Series
	Research Grants and Contracts
	Special Governmental Programs
	Summer Theater

Extension Program and Branch Colleges

In 1946, only three classes were offered by the Extension Division with an enrollment of 34 students.

In 1966, some 400 extension classes were offered with an enrollment of 10,998 students. Extension courses are taught in the following cities.

Ahoskie	Cherry Point	Fayetteville	Kenanasville	Plymouth	Tarboro
Bayboro	Clinton	Fort Bragg	Kinston	Raleigh	Washington
Beaufort	Colerain	Goldsboro	Louisburg	Richlands	Weldon
Bladenboro	Edenton	Havelock	Morehead City	Rocky Mount	Williamston
Burgaw	Elizabeth City	Henderson	New Bern	Sanford	Wilmington
Camp Lejeune	Elizabethtown	Jackson	Newport	Smithfield	Wilson
Chadbourn	Enfield	Jacksonville	Oxford	Snow Hill	Zebulon

At the end of 1966, East Carolina College had fully-accredited two-year resident centers in operation at three locations: Camp Lejeune, Cherry Point, and Goldsboro. It also had one-year programs at Manteo and through its Undergraduate Evening College on the main ECC campus.

Until 1965-1966, all extension work was entirely self-supporting -- operating at no cost to the taxpayer with the exception of the State's contribution to the pension fund for extension teachers. Approximately 10 per cent of the cost of extension work is now paid for by the State of North Carolina.

What could East Carolina University do that East Carolina College could not?

1. Would be in a better position to attract federal and foundation money usually allocated to institutions with university status
2. Attract more teachers of high quality that want to be associated with a university.
3. Make available to many thousands of deserving and capable North Carolina college students a university education in name as well as quality.
4. Contribute trained college teachers to help fill the State's needs.
5. Contribute more to the improvement of the cultural and economic life of Eastern North Carolina.
6. Provide opportunities for innovation and experimentation in graduate instruction.

The Cost

The argument against the establishment of multiple universities in North Carolina is a familiar one: North Carolina, it is said, is a poor state; it cannot finance several institutions to do the same thing.

Yet of the eight states with lower per capita income than North Carolina, four -- Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana -- support regional universities.

Furthermore, maximum economies have not been effected and duplication has not been eliminated by having each branch of the consolidated university alone performing part of the tasks of a university and all together performing the work of a whole university. The demand for services has been such that the Consolidated University in 1966 announced its intention to duplicate services at all branches until each is a whole university.

Duplication of services is not always an unnecessary or undesirable expense. When the demand for instruction reaches the point that the facilities are to maximum capacity, the fear of duplication, competition and the expense is unwarranted.

Any consideration of the specific amount of money needed to make East Carolina into a university must be made in the realization that East Carolina by any name will grow and cost more as it serves more students. Consequently, immediately after a name change the difference in cost would be negligible. In its current estimates on projected operating costs, East Carolina does not list any appropriation needs for the additional graduate instruction at the doctoral level for the next biennium. Not until the 1969-1970 school year would the college expect to develop doctoral programs to require additional money. In that year, it estimates that it could begin a doctoral program in one field at a cost of $250,000 or less.

To offset this estimated expense would be grants and assistance from private foundations and the federal government. The situation regarding availability of grants is changing so rapidly that it is not feasible to predict the amounts of grants for the coming years. By the end of 1966, East Carolina College had received more than thirty grants for a total of $950,000. Some thirty-five proposals for additional grants were pending. It was no secret that many programs are supported by foundations and federal government are more likely to open only to institutions that are formally called "University."

The East Carolina Plan of Action

East Carolina's development has been in response to public needs rather than in fulfillment of some master plan designed to describe the ideal rather than the possible. The Carlyle Commission described this as the North Carolina way when it stated that the "North Carolina system of public post-high school education has for the most part developed, not in conformity with any grand design, but in response to the felt needs of the growing population in the advancing state."

Nevertheless, the development of East Carolina has been accomplished with orderliness and care, following a pattern that has been common in the development of higher education throughout the United States. In the early days, one- and two-year teaching programs met the needs of the fledgling public school system. Then came four-year programs, pre-professional curricula, and professional and graduate schools. To meet the needs of communities, the Developmental Evaluation Clinic and the Eastern North Carolina Department Institute were established. Greatly expanded cultural programs, such as the highly successful Summer Theater, Contemporary Music Festival, Fine Arts and Pop Arts Series --- these activities reach far beyond the influence of the main campus.

These are the kinds of things that are expected of a university: to make plans that meet needs. The plans have been orderly -- and the results satisfying and rewarding.

Thus East Carolina is no mere college; it is now and has been organized for some time as a university. It serves its students and their families in a number of ways, for higher education is an integral part of our society, and East Carolina College reflects the traditions and aspirations of the people of Eastern North Carolina as a whole. Students come to Greenville to learn professions, develop their personalities, grow culturally, advance socially, and acquire habits of civic responsibility; and East Carolina extends the manifold university beyond the college walls through its Extension Division, its cultural attractions, its Development Institute, and its new Institute of Life Sciences and Community Health. Professionally trained students from East Carolina carry these benefits to many localities in North Carolina.

In addition, East Carolina hopes to provide the people of the State with expanded programs in education, athletics, and cultural affairs; and anything else in the region or the State may need. The explicit aims of higher education include those of helping to solve the practical problems of contemporary life. Many of these problems are best studied and solved in an academic institution which interacts with the community.

For a long time the people of the East have looked at East Carolina for leadership in the solution for many community problems. They have come to expect help. The motto of East Carolina is TO SERVE, and its phenomenal growth has been in response to the demands of the people.

East Carolina College has served the State of North Carolina well as a college. It can serve the State better as East Carolina University.

Enrollment by Counties

Alamance - 15	Dare - 25	Lee - 77	Randolph - 66
Alexander - 8	Davidson - 63	Lenoir - 230	Richmond - 51
Anson - 19	Davie - 17	Lincoln - 8	Robeson - 57
Ashe - 12	Duplin - 88	McDowell - 2	Rockingham - 38
Beaufort - 222	Durham - 188	Macon - 9	Rowan - 77
Bertie - 72	Edgecombe - 178	Madison - 1	Rutherford - 20
Bladen - 31	Forsyth - 215	Martin - 111	Sampsom - 116
Brunswick - 18	Franklin - 34	Mecklenburg - 296	Scotland - 26
Buncombe - 63	Gaston - 46	Mitchell - 1	Stanley - 46
Burke - 45	Gates - 26	Montgomery - 16	Stokes - 8
Cabarrus - 48	Granville - 58	Moore - 59	Surry - 39
Caldwell - 23	Greene - 52	Nash - 181	Swain - 1
Camden - 7	Guilford - 325	New Hanover - 54	Transylvania - 1
Carteret - 133	Halifax - 149	North Hampton - 38	Tyrrell - 14
Caswell - 17	Harnett - 90	Onslow - 186	Union - 26
Catawaba - 68	Haywood - 6	Orange - 29	Vance - 55
Chatham - 38	Henderson - 17	Pamlico - 31	Wake - 397
Cherokee - 1	Hertford - 40	Pasquotank - 85	Warren - 30
Chowan - 53	Hoke - 12	Pender - 21	Washington - 42
Cleveland - 21	Hyde - 8	Perquimans - 24	Watauga - 247
Columbus - 60	Iredell - 47	Person - 46	Wilkes - 22
Craven - 224	Jackson - 1	Pitt - 734	Wilson - 155
Cumberland - 229	Johnston - 187	Polk - 2	Yadkin - 13
Currituck - 20	Jones - 25