Out of State, Out of Funding

 A growing number of states are adopting new legislation that is forcing some Black institutions to choose between public dollars and loyalty to legacy students

GREENVILLE, S.C. — As public colleges and universities in the South compete for limited state dollars, the legislators and taxpayers who allocate and provide those dollars are asking higher education officials to be mindful of one thing: pay for home-grown college students first.
It's a trend that is exacting a particularly heavy toll on historically Black colleges and universities, which often use out-of-state tuition to line their coffers and whose out-of-state alumni loyally send their offspring for postsecondary education at these institutions. In many cases, those alumni left the South because the jobs they wanted weren't available to them, says James Ammons, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. It is that tradition, coupled with a historical context that doesn't necessarily fit other schools in the region. 
 "Any discussion you have about out-of-state enrollment, you have to have the historical context and the possible danger of some alumni not being able to send their children to their alma mater because of these restrictions," Ammons says.
In North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida  — three states where too many out-of-state students can result in funding decreases — administrators are grappling with providing access to those non-residents without sacrificing state funds. In many cases, it's a losing battle. Competition for those few slots is high.
 "What we have is an admission standard. We don't make exceptions to it," says Harold Martin, vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. "There's nothing we can really do for them."
At North Carolina A&T, about 17 percent of the school's nearly 7,400 students are from outside the state's borders, Martin says. Of particular interest to admissions officers, Martin adds, is the percentage of non-resident freshmen.
In 1986, the North Carolina Board of Governors made it a policy that no more than 18 percent of entering freshmen in the fall term could be from out of state, says Roy Carroll, vice president for academic affairs for the University of North Carolina system. That mandate, if unheeded for two straight years, could result in penalties in state allocations the following year.
 "At the time the board placed that limitation, the [state] General Assembly was very much concerned with whether or not we had an adequate number of places for students from the state," Carroll says. "The rule had a greater impact on places like North Carolina A&T because at that time, they probably were running 20-something percent out-of-state — probably closer to 30 percent with the entering class. It had an impact in terms of out-of-state enrollment."
Last fall, they enrolled 19 percent of their freshmen from out-of-state, exceeding the university system's benchmark. Martin projected that the university's magic number this fall would be about 17.5 to 18 percent, low enough to avoid any funding repercussions. Martin says those students pay about $13,000 a year in tuition, more than double what state residents pay. As the number of non-residents decreases, so too does the revenue from out-of-state tuition.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, Martin says. As the total enrollment at A&T edges up, that means more access for out-of-state students.
 "The receipts portion of our budget is impacted by the number of out-of-state students," he says. "There's going to be an impact in that regard."