Franklin: Many changes are ahead for St. Aug
(continued from page 1)
asking citizens of Raleigh to provide financial assis
tance.
President Franklin also shared his frustrations, chal
lenges, and goals since coming to office in August
1995. The questions ranged from fees, security, the
school’s physical structure to honoring the Delaney
sisters and professors. Here are some of his re
sponses:
Q. Why does tuition go up every year and why did
the fees for room keys increase?
A. Let me correct one thing. Tuition has not gone up in
this institution for three years. So the notion that it
went up every year is just not true.
What students need to realize is that the tuition they
pay only pays for 60 percent of what it costs to run this
institution. That other 40 percent must be raised.
Now, put it this way. The institution needs a $20
million budget (operating cost). Out of this we feed
students, provide certain services and institutional
scholarships to students- yet students only pay 60
percent of that cost. The other 40 percent must be
raised. So if we charge off to students what it really
costs to educate them some could not afford to come
here.
When students damage things, even if it is old, what
we have to do is go out and raise more money. But
everyone must understand we are all fund raisers. The
image of St. Aug is created not only by the President,
but also by faculty and students. People see St. Aug
not just through my eyes but through students and
alumni and if we are not positive about this institution,
why should somebody want to support it who has no
allegiance to us whatsoever. Everything, inflation is
going up. When you have a situation where faculty
have not had increases for a number of years you have
to close the gap.
In addition to that, St. Aug is extremely
affordable in comparison to our sister and brother
schools (UNCF institutions). So what I think students
have to keep in mind is that we want to keep the cost of
St. Aug affordable. Too, we must remember that
everything goes up, electricity, everything. So, some
where that cost must be passed on, either we raise more
monies or decrease the number of students we can
service and that would be unfortunate.
Q. You keep talking about these costs...where does
debt come into play. How much are we in the red?
A. We have about (physical plant) $9 million debt. This
is the debt from buildings built and so your operating
debt, interest and principal payments are included in
the operating costs of the institution.
Q. What role can students play in helping to raise
funds?
A. I do not think the students are asked to come here
and raise money. But, this is how they can help, by
coming here and being the best that they can be. To
take advantage of the resources we have in the
community. For instance, I was proud of the number of
students who participated in the “Juvenile Watch for
Cure” this past weekend. That says to the larger
community that they are making a worthwhile invest
ment in St. Aug when students, faculty and staff are
involved in our community. It makes it much easier to
go out and raise funds to get people to invest. We are
not asking people to give money to St. Aug, because
there are thou^sands of people out there asking them to
give money. But, we are asking them to invest and
when they see successful students, then they see it is a
worthwhile institution.
Q. Why are Bahamians discriminated against? Why
can’t a student, who is in need, and has a 3.7/3.8 or
better average get financial aid?
A. Hard for me to answer that. It is an individual issue.
If you are asking, “Do we need to look at our financial
aid’ and the distribution of scholarships"? you are
absolutely right. We have to put more money into
academic scholarships.
It does not make sense for someone with a 3.8, if they
have the need, (because some of this financial aid money
is based on need, but it has more to do with performance,
and I am not debating whether that is right or wrong), not
to be assisted.
If we are going to attract and retain those students
with high academic proficiencies then we will have to put
more money in there and we have to be able to do that,
but again it does not happen overnight. It does not
happen that quickly. Back to my frustrations, I can see the
problem or better yet the challenge that is there about
how you create change. You realize we did not get there
overnight and changes will not happen overnight.
Q. What specifically are you referring to when you say
changes?
A. I think if you go to the dining hall you see a tremen
dous change. I remember when I first arrived, I seemed to
hear constant complaints about that. I think our grounds
look much better and why is that important? Because
people make more assessment about an institution based
on what they see and if you look good then rightly or
wrongly they assume that there is a quality that is going
on there. I think when I sit and talk with students about
the quality of student life, they speak very favorably
about that. When I look at the faculty and see Dr. Fred
Hall, who comes to head the Urban Research area— to me
that reflects change. The fact that we have reduced credit
hours that one would have to graduate, again that extra
expense would have been passed on to parents. What we
are getting ready to do in the library— more students on
campus will have their own E-mail address. By next
semester the, library will be computerized. When you look
at the whole picture, I can see the changes, but we must
move on.
Q. WRMY: What long term benefits are we going to get?
What does it do for WAUG?
A. To answer the long term benefits first, I think it does
three primary things. One, it creates a revenue source that
we do not have. It gets more revenue for the institution
because we have a revenue stream that we did not have
before. Secondly, it creates internship possibility for
students with state of the art equipment that we quite
candidly and honestly do not have. But now we do have
it and it is on our campus and we have access to it and
that’s critical to our students. Thirdly, it brings to campus
a unique characteristic that separates us from our brother
and sister institutions. Where else can you go in the U.S.,
under one roof, and find two black-owned commercial
television stations?
Q. That is true and indeed perhaps, a good venture: But
how will communication students benefit?. There is a limit
to even internships.
A. I cannot say by coming on the campus that it auto
matically is a cure all. But I think it does offer for some of
them an opportunity they simply will not have had
elsewhere. If you look at the logo on WRMY, that was
done by one of our students. To be a college student and
say you designed a logo for a commercial television
station makes you more marketable. So again it is not a
cure-all answer but it offers long term benefits for the
school.
In answer to the second part of the previous question,
WRMY is the strengthening part of WAUG. It subcon
tracts with WAUG to do certain productions for them.
WRMY also gives WAUG a larger market place than just
Raleigh. WAUG can now move throughout the Triangle
Area. So it opens a window of exposure.
Q. Students have expressed concern of how the gates
(around campus) are opened and closed at random. Do
you have a policy or can you help us work out a policy?
A. I don’t know about this. I guess if there is a policy of
time (as to when the gates should be opened) then we
need to do a better job of communicating it.
Q. In light of Hurricane Fran and its scare to North
Carolina residents and more importantly our students,
what measures are being taken to protect students
should another hurricane occur?
A. We all have learned from that experience. We have
implemented a series of drills in the case of fires, which
has always been of major concern to us. We took
precautions and tried to distribute flash lights to the
residence halls but I do not think that anyone antici
pated the kind of damage that was caused by Fran. We
were fortunate people, even better to say we were
blessed, given the amount of damage the campus
sustained. We’re looking into how we can best
protect our students.
On the question of generators I really don’t know
what Mr. Nichols, vice president of finance, is going to
do. I know that we were prepared to purchase genera
tors during that period without electricity, but some
one at CP&L kept telling us that we would have
electricity soon.
Q. Last year you promised to stay in the dorm and
see how students live? Are you still going to carry out
that promise. And when?
A. That did not materialize and I don’t know what
happened. But I still want to do that. I would relish the
opportunity.
Q. Will you also attend classes with students?
A: Yes. I have one class I am going to speak with next
week. In the past week I met with 25 student leaders
and we talked about issues affecting campus, but I
also enjoy interacting with students, not only talking
about St. Aug-that is not to minimize the problems we
have here—but surely there are more things that St.
Augustine’s students can talk about. So to sit and talk ,
with students about the Presidential Elections, the
death of Tupac and other things including St. Aug
was quite interesting.
Q. We have heard rumors about working toward new
majors?
A. We added one. International Business. What we
have to do is look at the demands of the marketplace
in terms of how do we prepare students. I do not think
it is a matter of majors but also an issue of require
ments and courses. What kinds of skills are we saying
you must have to be successful whether pre-med,
journalism or business. There are still skills that are
critical that I’d rather offer you some training in. I think
that as we move to the 21st century we must have
changes in the curriculum. If we do not we become a
dinosaur and we know what happened to dinosaurs.
They became extinct. So we have to change, because if
we do not we will be left behind. As we move to the
21st century, we will move to expanding the curricu
lum.
Q. The Junior Comprehensive Exam, what is going to
happen to it?
A. That is an issue I would rather leave to faculty.
Everyone thinks the president makes the decisions on
everything. Not only is that far from the truth and
should not be that way. Faculty really dictates the
academic standards and I would much rather let that
be an issue for them, even senior comprehensives.
Q. You said earlier that the library will soon be
automated. Are there any immediate plans to put
books in the library?. Students still need information
for classes and this may not happen as fast as we
would like.
A. I take issue because by the time you get a book it
is out dated. Yes, we need more books but we are
looking at some time next semester in having every
thing set in the library.
Q. The Allied Health Building has been damaged. Is it
self insured? Do we get anything from it? ,
A. Where do you get this stuff? It would be ludicrous
to say. Of course we have insurance. Once it is
adjusted from the insurance company we will fix it.