As part of the recommended $15 million cut to UNC System centers and institutes, the NC General Assembly included in the 2014-2015 state budget, a working group within the UNC Board of Governors has been reviewing nine research centers and institutes for potential cuts to funding. 

NC State’s Institute for Emerging Issues is one of these nine centers, putting it at risk to funding cuts from the state.

The IEI is known around campus partially due to the Emerging Issues Commons, located inside of Hunt Library, and the Emerging Issues Forum, an annual event that brings people from around North Carolina together to discuss issues affecting the entire state. 

Of the 237 centers and institutes within the UNC System, the board chose centers for further review if they met one or more of three criteria: if they have a budget of less than $50,000, have an economic return ratio of less than two-to-one or receive more than $100,000 of in-kind support, according to board documents.

Anita Brown-Graham, director of the IEI, said she met with the working group reviewing the centers in December to answer questions about the center, and the working group will release its full recommendations about cuts to institutes to the full Board of Governors on Feb. 27 at UNC-Charlotte.

During a presentation in front of the working group, the IEI tried to clarify its mission as an organization geared toward helping communities in North Carolina improve their economic competitiveness, explaining exactly how the institute conducts its day-to-day operations and how state support is crucial for the institute to also garner private donations, Brown-Graham said.

The IEI receives $750,000 out of its total annual budget of $3.6 million from the state funds each year.

The IEI choose not to figure how much in-kind support, or donations of goods and services rather than cash gifts, it receives each year because the number would be too large due to the nature of the work at the center—convening people—which isn’t fair in comparison to other centers and institutes, Brown-Graham said.

“If you tried to value the amount of time that thousands of people spend with IEI each year, we would probably be the best value there is anywhere in the country in terms of centers and institutes,” Brown-Graham said.

Private organizations give the IEI funding to do specific things. Brown-Graham said she would presume that the state is also invested in those things, and it makes it hard for the institute to get other funders when that is not the case.

“The state funding is really essential to our ability to raise this additional private funding,” Brown-Graham said.

During the presentation, members of the working group reviewing the institute spoke about how well-managed the IEI is, the good job they are doing of attracting diverse perspectives in their work and the importance of having an organization that is centered on North Carolina’s long-term economy, Brown-Graham said.

“It actually was a really good experience,” Brown-Graham said. “It also made me feel good because every single member of the subcommittee who spoke had nothing but positive things to say about the Institute for Emerging Issues.” 

The Student Senate passed a bill on Jan. 21 authorizing the Senate to draft an open letter to UNC-System leaders to not cut IEI’s budget. Student Body President Rusty Mau and Student Senate President Cody Long signed the letter.

Student Senate will send the letter to members of the NC General Assembly, the UNC Board of Governors, UNC System President Tom Ross, members of the UNC Associations of Student Governments and members of the Faculty and Staff Senates at NC State.

Priya Loganarthar, a freshman studying human biology and the senator who introduced the bill, said the Board is reviewing centers that are helpful to students without regard to the needs of the institution.

“They only thought about the money aspect of it, not the actual value of each center,” Loganarthar said. “UNC-Chapel Hill has nine centers under review, such as the Carolina Women’s Center… they all have been really helpful to students,” 

Loganarthar said the budget cuts to the IEI could potentially be stopped, and it is in the best interest of the students she represents to stop the budget cuts from happening.

“We don’t want any budget cuts for IEI since it’s been really helpful for our students and the entire community for North Carolina,” Loganarthar said.

Brown-Graham said the institute is anticipating the working group’s budget cut recommendations next month. 

“We’re all waiting to see what happens,” Brown-Graham said.