ECU, ECC ANNOUNCE NEW 'HUB' SITE

ECU Chancellor William V. Muse announces the new hub with Dr. Marilyn Sheerer, dean of the School of Education, ECC President Hartwell H. Fuller and Marilynn Anselmi, Partnership East North Central Consortium Coordinator at ECC.

ROCKY MOUNT (March 25, 2003) — East Carolina University and Edgecombe Community College have announced the establishment of a Partnership East "hub" program aimed at increasing the supply of teachers by making a four-year education degree available at the community college.

The program will be based at the ECC campus in Rocky Mount and delivered through Partnership East's North Central Consortium, composed of Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash, Vance-Granville, and Wilson Tech community colleges. The teacher education program will be available to students living in a nine-county region: Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Nash, Northampton, Vance, Warren, and Wilson counties.

The hub concept will enable students to complete their first two years of course work at their local community colleges. They then can complete the last two years at the Rocky Mount site. Upper-level instruction at the hub will be provided by ECU faculty members, either in person or on-line.

Students will be able to complete their education degrees without having to move or commute to the ECU campus in Greenville.

ECU Chancellor William V. Muse, noting that the university was created as a teacher training school, said, "We have never forgotten our roots. Teacher education is a high priority today, just as it was then. Through this partnership, we will become a strong force working toward the preparation of quality teachers for eastern North Carolina."

ECC President Hartwell H. Fuller said, "We are delighted that ECU selected ECC's Rocky Mount campus as its north central hub for Partnership East. The teacher education shortage is beyond critical; it's on life support. The partnership is a creative response to this ever-growing crisis and a shining example of both institutions' commitment to outreach programs that make a genuine difference in people's lives."

The hub based in Rocky Mount is the second such cooperative arrangement established by ECU through its Partnership East program. The first, which recently enrolled its first students, was set up at Craven Community College in New Bern. Partnership East eventually plans to have four hubs throughout eastern North Carolina.

North Carolina's projected enrollment growth in public schools is the fourth largest in the nation, and experts predict that the state will need 80,000 new teachers in the next 10 years. That is roughly equal to the number of teachers in classrooms in the state today.