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JACKSON – Dr. Murray Williams, President of Roanoke-Chowan Community College, visited the Northampton County Commissioners at their meeting on Feb. 3 to share more information on how the educational institute is serving the community.

Board Chair Ed Martin said he’d recently had a chance to see her presentation, and had invited her to the meeting to share the numbers with the full Board of Commissioners.

“We have served almost 800 citizens of Northampton County over the last three years,” said Dr. Williams, who began her tenure with the community college in May 2021.

According to her statistics, enrollment for curriculum students and continuing education students from Northampton County has increased 8.7 percent between FY22 and FY24.

“The number of citizens that we serve in Northampton County continues to grow, and we’re very excited about that,” she emphasized.

She also noted that overall enrollment – not just Northampton students – has continued to increase as well, and that they’ve had the highest enrollment increase among all 58 community colleges in North Carolina for two of the last three years.

Additionally, Dr. Williams reported that performance measures of student success have increased as well.

“This past year, Roanoke-Chowan led the state in curriculum completion. That means in graduation rates, we were number one of out of all 58 [community] colleges,” she said.

She noted that the graduation rate for Northampton County students in particular has increased substantially over the past few years, and they should be commended for that accomplishment.

Dr. Williams gave a brief overview of the college’s efforts to expand different programs and bring in more grant funding. And she also shared that the school received full reaccreditation in 2023 for the next 10 years.

RCCC serves students from Northampton, Hertford, and Bertie counties, and receives funding from all three. But the majority of that funding comes from Hertford County, where the school is located.

“The amount of funding that we’ve been receiving from Northampton County has been increasing,” Dr. Williams said, noting it went from 2 percent to 8 percent over the past few years.

The percentage of students from Northampton County has also increased from 12 percent to 14 percent of the college’s overall total.

“You see the great things that are happening at Roanoke Chowan Community College, and you also see that we’re growing,” Dr. Williams said. “I will ask the Board if you would be willing to consider to begin funding the college for the same level of percentage that we have for enrollment.”

She explained, for example, that a 14 percent budget contribution (which would match the 14 percent student population from Northampton County) would be approximately $195,000. That’s about $85,000 more than the county’s most recent contribution, and Dr. Williams said those extra funds can continue to make a difference for students at the school.

“Our students are doing great, and we’re looking forward to serving more students and more citizens from Northampton County at our college,” she concluded.

“We will certainly take this under consideration,” said Martin after the presentation, and thanked Dr. Williams for the information.