Professional Schools Dropped From Budget

The Senate version of the budget called for only the new pharmacy school at Elizabeth City State, while the House version also included plans for a stand-alone engineering school at East Carolina University and engineering programs at UNC-Asheville and Western Carolina University.

The Elizabeth City State program was reviewed by the UNC-system Board of Governors after a provision in the 2001-02 budget called for the board to review the benefits and feasibility of a new pharmacy program.

The BOG recommended a pharmacy program at Elizabeth City State to work in conjunction with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Howard Lee, D-Orange, said that for the pharmacy school at Elizabeth City State to get funding, the committee also would have had to approve the other new programs.

He said the tight budget did not allow for the entire provision to pass.

"There were too many other additions in the same provision that would have short-circuited the process of approving new additions," Lee said. "The question is finding money to support it so it can move ahead."

Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, whose district includes Elizabeth City, said the budget crisis contributed to many legislators' refusal to support the proposal.

"In the budget crisis we're in, it doesn't take much when someone says, 'We don't want it,'" he said.

But many legislators said they support an independent pharmacy school.

Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and other supporters of the plan were displeased by its omission from the budget.

"He was pretty disappointed that it wasn't in there because it had gone through a review by the BOG," Amy Fulk, said Basnight's press secretary.

She said the proposals came under fire for being a convenient way for legislators to tack on provisions that benefit their constituencies.

But Fulk emphasized that Basnight thinks the pharmacy school would have provided a specialty program for an institution other than the system's two flagship campuses -- UNC-CH and N.C. State University.

Lee also said he thinks the new pharmacy school would be a good way to "raise the standard" of other UNC-system campuses.

"A stand-alone school would elevate the standing of Elizabeth City State better than a dependent school," Lee said.

Officials at Elizabeth City State said the new pharmacy school would have helped the school increase its enrollment.

The campus is one of seven targeted by UNC-system officials as a focused-growth institution.

Despite the scarcity of extra funds, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said he expects the pharmacy school proposal to come before the Senate again in the future.

He said, "It is the general nature of man for these types of things to reappear from time to time."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.