N.C. Central University student organizations, departments and related administrative offices are coping with more than $500,000 in budget cuts that hit them over the summer.
Money was reallocated for Academic Affairs, the Department of Student Affairs and the Vice Chancellor’s office.
According to Angela Coleman, vice chancellor for student affairs, $554,154 in Student Activity Fee funding was redistributed toward direct student services such as the Career and Professional Development Center, fitness center and shuttle transportation.
Some money was also redirected to pay university employees whose positions were being funded through Residential Life’s budget. Those employees are now paid through Student Activity Fee funds.
The Division of Student Affairs budget suffered the largest cut — $250,200, approximately 45% of the entire reduction.
Coleman’s budget was cut by $196,654, most of which came out of the office’s Student Affairs budget.
Academic Affairs received a $107,300 cut, which reduced budgets for student organizations such as the Campus Echo, Jazz Ensemble, and University Choir.
The Campus Echo took one of the deepest cuts, seeing a 66.7% budget reduction.
Multiple other organizations received cuts to the same or worse extent. Jazz Ensemble received a cut from $45,000 to $25,000.
Kara Andrade, the Campus Echo’s faculty adviser, and Calvin Hall, chair of the department of Mass Communication received an email back in July about allocated funds for the 2026-2027 academic year. The Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee told them the Campus Echo’s budget was reduced from $45,000 to $15,000.
Students are no longer receiving stipends for formerly paid positions.
“It has us working at a slower pace…we’ve been having to fund things ourselves,” De’Zaria Lucas, editor-in-chief said.
The budget cut left no funding available for the faculty advisor’s stipend. Editors and advisors spent weeks near the end of summer in talks with the university to try and restore the funds.
University Choir was also cut from $15,000 to $8,000, according to Coleman.
TRIO Student Acce[SSS], First-Generation Student Success, and TRIO McNair Scholar lost all student activity fee funding and have $0 for this academic year.
However, many of these programs are being supported in other ways. First-Generation Student Success and TRIO Student Acce[SSS] were both funded from the vice chancellor’s budget.
“I actually ended up paying for it out of my budget, so we still did it this year. It just came out of my $55,000,” Coleman said.
Student counseling was also zeroed out but received money from the state and the increased student health fee.
Coleman said no organizations were targeted. She said she took time to look at every situation one-by-one to determine how much to cut.
Christopher Frazier, former Co-editor-in-chief and Daijah Boyd, former sports and photo editor issued a statement to the Campus Echo.
Before the first week of school, Frazier elaborated on what this budget cut means for student journalists.
“This decision punishes success and serves as a blatant disregard for the Eagles who consistently embody ‘Truth and Service,’” Frazier said.
For Frazier, the cut felt personal. For Boyd, the problem is larger than just the Campus Echo and has to do with the campus community.
“It’s important for student media, especially [the] Campus Echo, to remain funded for various reasons, but especially to prepare students for the outside world,” she said. “A properly working and up-to-date environment allows the Campus Echo to put out the quality and informative work it’s been doing for nearly 100 years.”
At the time of publication of this story, the Campus Echo has not received any updates about how much of the money can be returned. Lucas said her goal now is to get the editorial board and staff writers paid for their work.
