Kalynn Baker/The Hilltop: This is Kalynn Baker, and I’m here interviewing Dr. Lunsford on the budget deficit. Dr. Lunsford …
Dan Lunsford: Yes?
Baker/Hiltop: About how many students were enrolled at Mars Hill College this fall semester?
Lunsford: Approximately 1,010.
Baker/Hilltop: Okay, and about how many of those students returned for the spring semester?
Lunsford: Well, returned and then when you add to that the new enrollees, for a total enrollment of approximately 885.
Baker/Hilltop: Okay. Is there a status quo for enrolled students?
Lunsford: The norm for the last number of years is that the spring enrollment is 92 percent of the fall enrollment.
Baker/Hilltop: Okay. Why do you believe that the number of students fluctuated so greatly between fall semester and spring semester enrollments?
Lunsford: The predominant reason we’ve been able to ferret out is financial. And the reason I say that is we have analyzed all the data that we could get our hands on for the eligible students that to return and even to the point that there were 51 students who were pre-registered in the spring for fall, I mean, excuse me, for the spring during the fall semester, that did not return. And of that 51 students, 21 of them had some financial aid from the state of North Carolina removed because the state budget was reduced. It was a $2,000 reward to those 21 students, and that’s, you know, that’s a big piece of a semester’s financial aid. It was in the plan for the fall, we got word sometime in the fall, I don’t know when, that the spring semester, it would not be able to be there. The academic performance of the students who came back versus those who left was basically the same, so the only really consistent thing that we could identify was financial.
Baker/Hilltop: Okay. Southwestern Community College is ranked the fourth best in the nation and the price of their tuition is significantly less than that of Mars Hill. Mars Hill is ranked, I believe, it was 22nd out of 32 private colleges in North Carolina?
Lunsford: Twenty-second out of 35, I believe.
Baker/Hilltop: Thirty-five, okay, I apologize.
Lunsford: It’s alright.
Baker/Hilltop: Why would that be?
Lunsford: Well, specifically, the community college system of North Carolina is a state-funded system, and what the students pay to go to community college is a very small proportion of actual direct costs, and because it is a community college, none of them have residence halls. They have limited if any sports programs, athletic programs, very limited other student activities, so overall cost is significantly less. They only offer two-year, the largest is, two-year degrees, so their cost factors are considerably less, and because they have a large, large investment by the state, and it’s the same kind of thing in other states, in terms of what the tuition and fees are at a community college versus a four-year state university or a four-year, even a two-year, private institution, and, I can’t quote precisely how much the state invests per student in a community college student in North Carolina, but that data is out there somewhere. But it is a very, very, proportionately, very large amount. And the basic, the basic philosophy of the community college system in North Carolina when it was started being formed, now about 50 years ago, was for students to go to the technical college, now community colleges of North Carolina, basically free. That was the intent, and it’s not free, but it is relatively inexpensive.
Baker/Hilltop: Alright, can you please inform me exactly what a traditional student is and what qualifications he or she has to meet in order to be considered such?
Lunsford: Well, a traditional student is, in the larger universe, including Mars Hill, a student who is between the ages of 17 and 25, that is taking in the typical form, is taking at least 12 hours of academic study per semester and is eligible to live in an on-campus facility, though not required to for all four years. That’s the broad-frame definition of a traditional student. Age, hours taken, though there is a provision for a student to be a part-time student. There are no part-time students who are residential students who are in the traditional age category. But that’s the broad-frame definition.
Baker/Hilltop: Alright, in your statement to the (Asheville) Citizen-Times, you said that the students will see costs increase 5 to 5 and 1/2 percent. That’s approximately another $1,050 added to the tuition of traditional undergraduate students. With the increase of the price of tuition, do you expect to have more of less of an enrollment rate?
Lunsford: At this moment in time, we’re budgeting for no increase in the fall number as compared to the fall number of 2010 (sic).
Baker/Hilltop: Okay. You stated that there was a budget deficit of approximately $550,000, is that correct?
Lunsford: Correct.
Baker/Hilltop: What caused this deficit?
Lunsford: The simple cause is that we had 30 students less than the number on which we had built the budget. We built the budget on 92 percent of about 1,010; it always fluctuates a bit. And we ended up with 88 percent. The difference is 30 students.
Baker/Hilltop: Can a drop in enrollment cause this on its own, or were there other factors?
Lunsford: This particular deficit (in enrollment), as we have looked at all other revenues, is the majority reason for this deficit.
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