Chancellor Rogers’ Message, September 2024

Published Sep 27, 2024 by
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September 27, 2024

To the Pirate Nation Family:

A little more than a month into the fall semester, we’re off to a running start. From the bustling Mall to our all-hands efforts for student move-in, the enthusiastic spirit of these early weeks has put us on pace for a year’s worth of accomplishment.

Our second annual University Day on Aug. 29 set the tone. Spotlighting our legacy, long-term plans, and recent progress, the celebration in the Main Campus Student Center was a poignant reflection of East Carolina University values and traditions. This video captures multimedia presentations, a wonderful performance by a University jazz ensemble, and much more from the occasion.

If you were there, you heard me feature a few high points from the 2023-24 academic year, including new space for our Military & Veterans Resource Center and improvements in our online offerings. The University’s laser focus on student learning and programs helped us earn the prestigious Carnegie Leadership for Public Purpose classification — placing ECU among just 25 colleges and universities with this distinction.

We’ll keep reinforcing that priority this year through our Student Success Agenda, a central element of our University strategic plan — “Future focused. Innovation driven.” Our emphasis is a holistic ecosystem to make sure students achieve timely progress in their studies, in their career preparation, and toward graduation.

As we advance all aspects of this ecosystem, several pillars will be at the forefront this year. Specifically, the University is concentrating on:

  • data-informed student-retention goals for individual colleges and the University as a whole;
  • enhanced professional advising for undergraduates;
  • reformation of our policies and practices for transfer students;
  • alignment of fundraising goals and optimization of scholarship practices;
  • and campaigns to encourage on-time degree completion.

Stay tuned for more on these efforts in the months ahead.

In the meantime, a few data points help illustrate our forward momentum. Enrollment figures for fall 2024 won’t be official until the UNC System Office certifies them, but current counts show more than 4,020 new freshmen, more than 1,760 new transfer students, and more than 1,980 new graduate students. Our total headcount for the fall is nearly 27,000.

These numbers show clear results from our focus on student success, including ECU’s best retention rate in five years. Also among the highlights:

  • Campus housing is near capacity with about 5,500 student residents, the most since 2019.
  • Numbers are up overall for first-year, first-time students and for new graduate students. Our tally of new graduate students — 1,982 — is the highest we’ve seen since 2020.
  • Out-of-state undergraduate and overall international enrollments are both up — by 7% and 24%, respectively.

We went into more detail in a release to the news media earlier this month.

While students’ success and fulfillment are the best measures of our performance, external recognition spreads the word. Recent popular rankings are contributing on this front. In particular, the University improved a few positions in the 2025 Best Colleges rankings from U.S. News & World Report. We moved up in Best Colleges-National Universities, Top Public (National) Schools, and Best Colleges for Veterans (National Universities). And we remained in the top 100 Top Performers on Social Mobility (National Universities).

Elsewhere, we performed admirably in The Wall Street Journal’s 2025 Best Colleges report, appearing among the top 90 for social mobility. We also placed in the top tier for student experience. These rankings tend to be fluid gauges, but the spotlight helps others see the important work we’re doing here.

On a final note, I want to thank everyone who attended and organized the Sept. 9 forum on our fiscal review and planning. The assessment this semester will help ensure the University’s long-term strength. You can stay up to speed and engaged by visiting the fiscal health project webpage, which will include regular updates on the review.

Thanks for a spirited beginning to the year.

Sincerely,

Philip G. Rogers
Chancellor