Chancellor Conway Looks to the Future in State of University Address

As Elizabeth City State University prepares to launch into the 2018 winter/spring semester, Chancellor Thomas Conway is encouraging faculty and staff to look for change, and subsequently growth.

During the 2018 Faculty and Staff Conference held Wednesday, Jan. 3, in the Mickey L. Burnim Fine Arts Complex, Chancellor Conway gave his State of the University address, encouraging faculty and staff to look forward and make positive steps toward change.

“We can’t get to where we need to be, doing things the same way we’ve always done,” said Chancellor Conway.

Change was a major theme in the Chancellor’s address as he described the future of education and where ECSU fits into that changing landscape. The new education market, he said, is preparing people for a “knowledge based society.”

“How does Elizabeth City State University find relevance in this new education market?” He said.

Current and future students are asking themselves, he said, what the outcome will look like for them when they attend a particular institution. What sort of value will they leave with once they graduate from ECSU?

ECSU, he said, must be an institution that “values every student.”

“How do we get there? I’m going to invite you to look at a future of American education and a bright future for Elizabeth City State University,” said Chancellor Conway.

ECSU, he said, is growing. However, “if we grow strategically, we have a bright future and we can show others how to grow.”

With that in mind, the Chancellor emphasized that while it is human nature for any organization to pare off into small groups, and build personal alliances, or cliques, it is time for ECSU’s faculty and staff to come together as one, cohesive unit.

“Now we must come together to be on the same page,” he said. “If we focus on what our opportunity is moving forward, not only will we see rapid growth, but our reputation will grow.”

Currently, said Chancellor Conway, ECSU is the “best value for the lowest cost in the UNC system.” Now, in the fall of 2018, ECSU is poised to become an even greater value with the implementation of the N.C. Promise Tuition Program, bringing in-state tuition costs down to $500 a semester, and out-of-state costs to $2,500 a semester.

That value will bring students to the ECSU campus, and the job of faculty and staff is to focus on student success, he said.

“If we do this very serious reflection of who we are as an institution,” he said, “then we have the opportunity to set a path informed by the customers we serve.”

And those customers, the students, will come to us because we offer them knowledge based value.

“ECSU can become a magnet for talent and a magnet for progress,” said Chancellor Conway.