Fayetteville State University considers partnership with Cuba

Posted: Thursday, September 24, 2015 2:13 pm | Updated: 11:44 pm, Thu
Sep 24, 2015.
By Steve DeVane Staff writer

Fayetteville State University officials are looking into a potential
partnership with Cuba.
Chancellor James Anderson was one of 14 university presidents visiting
Cuba this month with the American Association of State Colleges and
Universities. It was the first university-led trip to Cuba since the
United States re-established ties with the island country, he said.
President Obama announced in December that the United States and Cuba
would move to restore diplomatic relations that ended 54 years ago. The
United States marked the reopening of its embassy in Havana last month.
Anderson told Fayetteville State trustees about his Sept. 6-13 visit to
Cuba at their meeting Thursday.
"We're reviewing the criteria that might be involved in a partnership
with Cuba," Anderson said after the meeting.
The partnership would be under a general agreement that the association
signed with Cuba, he said.
Anderson told trustees that any partnership would be studied carefully
before it is implemented. He said the university will not enter an
agreement that loses money.
"If the business model doesn't fit, let someone else do it," he said.
Anderson has concerns that visiting Cuban professors might want to defect.
"You've got to be real careful," he said.
Anderson said medical schools in Cuba have modern technology, but some
of the college campuses don't have air-conditioning in classrooms or
dorms. He said he told Cuban officials that students who come to
Fayetteville State would have to speak English and their tuition and
fees would have to be paid.
"It has to benefit the university before you do it," he said.
The 14 college presidents who visited Cuba will form a task force to
study potential partnerships, Anderson said.
The university currently has active partnerships with schools in China,
Nigeria and India.
At committee meetings earlier, trustees were told that the number of
graduates has increased over the past six years even as state funding
has decreased.
Fayetteville State had 927 graduates in the 2008-09 school year, when it
received $61.2 million from the state, according to Jon Young, the
school's provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. During the
2014-15 school year, the university had 1,084 graduates, while getting
$47.8 million in state funding, he said.
"This is a story of truly doing more with less," he said.
Young said school officials are expecting enrollment this school year to
be about 3.5 percent higher than 2014-15. The increase means the school
will get more tuition and fee revenues this year and will be able to
request more state funding next year.
"It means more dollars," Young said.
Fayetteville State also retained the highest percentage of first-year
students in its history from last year to this year. Young said 78
percent of new first-year students last year were back in school this year.
Yolanda Bonnette, associate vice chancellor for business and finance,
told trustees that the school's budget was down $5.3 million, or about
7.45 percent, over the last five years. Tuition and fees are down $2.9
million, or about 13.2 percent, and state funding is down $2.5 million,
or about 4.9 percent, in that time, she said.
Over the past year, Fayetteville State's budget is down $1.1 million, or
about 1.7 percent, Bonnette said. Tuition and fees are up about
$300,000, or about 1.4 percent, while state funding is down $1.4
million, or about 2.8 percent, she said.
Bridget Chisholm, Kirk deViere and Rajan Shamdasani were sworn in as new
trustees at the meeting.

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at devanes@fayobserver.com or
486-3572.

Source: Fayetteville State University considers partnership with Cuba -
Fayetteville Observer: Local News -
http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/fayetteville-state-considering-partnership-in-cuba/article_4fc7fc63-3c82-5a7c-b85a-91b6bbef6544.html