East Carolina penalized for too many out-of-state students

The state is penalizing East Carolina University for enrolling too many out-of-state students by cutting their funds.

Roughly $260,000 in state appropriations will be cut from the university’s budget for exceeding the 18 percent out-of-state enrollment cap.

But university officials said the cuts will not impact overall operations.

Rob Lange, senior associate director of admissions at ECU, said that this year the cap was exceeded by 27 students. This is the second consecutive year that ECU exceeded the cap.

The reason the cap was exceeded can be explained by yield rates ­— the rate at which the admissions office thinks that students will accept admission.

This year, as well as last year, the traditional yield rates for ECU didn’t hold true, Lange said. More out-of-state students enrolled than expected, and fewer in-state students enrolled.

Lange also said that although more students are applying to ECU overall, the proportion of out-of-state applications remained the same as in previous years.

 It’s possible that a higher number of out-of-state students accepting admission because out-of-state undergraduate tuition at ECU — $15,161 a year — is comparable to in-state tuitions in many students’ home states, Lange said.

The number of in-state students that enrolled could have been lower because of the economic situation, Lange said. Many of the students come from lower-income families who would be hit harder by the economy, he said.

Kevin Seitz, vice chancellor for administration and finance, said that while the budget cuts are certainly not desirable, they only represent a small percentage of the overall budget for the year.

The university was able to cover the budget cuts using general nonrecurring funds and were not expected to affect any of ECU’s programs or leave any jobs unfilled, Seitz said.

To prevent further loss, the university has now put a system of checks and balances in place to monitor the yield rates of out-of-state students during the admissions process, he said.

Kayla Flanders, an ECU sophomore psychology major from New York, said that she decided to apply to ECU for the better weather and because she has family in the area.

She said that the out-of-state student presence isn’t very noticeable but that about 1 in 5 people she meets are from out-of-state.

A few of these are from New York like her, and many are from Maryland. Those are two states that Lange said ECU gets many of its out-of-state students from, along with Virginia, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania.



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