Based on an evaluation of seven performance areas at Nicholls, the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System (UL System) awarded the University $46,789. According to Alice Pecoraro, vice president of academic affairs, Nicholls will use the money to supply resources and equipment for its Areas of Excellence.
The $46,789 award is part of the UL System’s $433,344 reward that was distributed among its eight universities. The Board has invested $4.7 million since July 2002 for priority initiatives and has rewarded funds to high performing universities for three consecutive years. Special allocations by the Legislature and Board of Regents provide the funds for the performance awards.
“During this time of tight budgets, it is important that our universities are investing resources in what counts,” Sally Clausen, UL System president, said in a recent press release. “These awards serve as an incentive for our universities to focus on academic and accountability measures.”
Pecoraro said there are no stipulations on how the money is spent, but Nicholls spends its funds on its Areas of Excellence since a great amount of the scoring is based on that.
“About four years ago, the UL System asked the universities to select outstanding programs that would make a name for the University and also that would be given more resources,” Pecoraro said.
Nicholls’ Areas of Excellence include teacher education, accounting and information systems, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, nursing/allied health services, biological sciences with a marine and environmental sciences emphasis and child, family and social services.
Last year, most of the performance funding was spent to buy a boat for the marine biology program. According to Pecoraro, this year’s funds will be split between a new freezer for the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, equipment for new faculty in the biology department and preparations in the teacher education program for the upcoming (NCATE) visit.
The amount of performance funding Nicholls received this year was the second lowest amount distributed, above Grambling State University’s reward of $45,336.
The distribution of the funds among universities was based on an evaluation of seven areas: academic program accreditation rates, freshman-to-sophomore retention rates, six-year graduation rates, reduction of remedial credit hours taught, percent of TOPS students eligible to return, accomplishments in the Unique Areas of Excellence and performance on financial and compliance audits.
“We were generally pleased with our scoring in the performance areas,” Pecoraro said. “I think one area we hope to continue to work on is the percentage of students in developmental courses.”
According to data on the UL System website, 53.9 percent of first-time freshmen at Nicholls were enrolled in developmental education courses. The UL System total percentage of first-time freshmen enrolled in remedial courses for all eight universities is 40.9 percent.
“I believe it (the remedial course situation) is getting better every year. We are recruiting better students and our ACT scores have gone up the past three years,” Pecoraro said.
According to the UL System website, Nicholls’ average ACT score for the 2002-2003 year was 19.0.
UL System officials say the funding has encouraged universities to raise standards and scores.
“As a result (of the funding), graduation rates and retention rates are up and academic program accreditation rates are at an all time high,” Clausen said in a recent press release.
Carroll Falcon, senior vice president/chief academic officer, said the UL System is waiting to see how the Legislature’s budget will be divided on higher education but they are hopeful and think this is a great way to provide incentives for universities to improve in certain areas.