NCSSM donors team up to blunt cuts

By Melody Guyton Butts
The Herald-Sun

 

 

DURHAM - Faced with an 8.4 percent reduction in state funding -- albeit the least among the 17 campuses of the UNC system -- N.C. School of Science and Mathematics faced some tough decisions in making ends meet for the 2011-12 school year.

 

Making those decisions less numerous was unprecedented private support from the school community in the recently ended fiscal year -- about $950,000 in unrestricted giving, up from about $300,000-$400,000 several years ago, said Brock Winslow, NCSSM's vice chancellor for institutional advancement.

 

Private gifts, including both restricted and unrestricted gifts, totaled about $1.25 million. Unrestricted giving allows for the greatest flexibility in addressing financial crises, he said.

 

Heightened support came from all corners of the NCSSM community -- alumni, parents and faculty members. That boost in funding likely helped the tuition-free, residential magnet high school preserve four or five faculty positions, said Chancellor Todd Roberts.

 

The fundraising efforts "exceeded our expectations," he said, with faculty members' participation up about 500 percent from the previous year, and alumni participation up about 200 percent. Parents have been "perennial" in their support, Winslow said, with about 60 percent of all students' families making gifts of anywhere from $10 to $10,000.

 

Many alumni feel a responsibility to ensure subsequent generations can enjoy what they see as a "life-changing experience" in their own lives, he said. "We just couldn't be more grateful, and I think that's exactly the type of a community banding together that our school and other schools will need in the coming years."

 

The recent fundraising success has also helped NCSSM to maintain a level of support for its research and mentoring programs, Winslow said -- "programs that are very unique to the school."

 

Despite the boost in charitable giving, NCSSM has had to make some difficult cuts, Roberts said, including about 15 percent of the school's senior administration staff and about 6.5 faculty and staff positions. The school did try its best to avoid cutting in the areas that would have the greatest impact on academics and student life, he said.

 

Budget constraints also will prevent the school from expanding its distance education program to meet increased demand.

 

Roberts said he's thankful that the UNC system and Legislature did "as well as could be expected" considering the circumstances, and he's especially grateful to the school community for coming together in a show of support.

 

The outpouring of support comes in a year that the state Legislature voted to phase out the Teaching Fellows college scholarship program for aspiring teachers and to cut $849,000 in funding for the Governor's School -- a move that has also been met with a surge in alumni donations.

 

Unique educational experiences like NCSSM have an impact beyond the students they touch directly, Roberts said.

 

"Our alumni who are now in their mid-40s have a large economic impact on the state," he said, noting that alumni of the 30-year-old school are now leaders in education, research and other fields and "have started businesses that employ a lot of people."

 

"The state had great foresight 30 years ago when they set this school up," he continued. "It's been copied across the nation since then, and never before has a focus on science and math been so important to the country."

 

 

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