GREENSBORO — Broad discretionary enforcement given to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors may explain why, in three different cases, N.C. A&T State University, one of the state’s five public historically black universities, has obtained advantages not enjoyed by other schools in the UNC system.

The nursing program

N.C. A&T’s nursing program has struggled for years. In 2005 and 2006, program graduates had a 69 percent first-time passing rate on the state’s nurse licensing exam — the lowest rate of the system’s 10 programs at the time (13 nursing programs exist in the system today). The passing rates improved over the next three years, but dropped significantly in 2010 and 2011.

After 2006, and again after 2011, the nursing program should have been eliminated according to system policy. The president is supposed to ask the board to initiate program termination procedures for any program having a first-time passing rate of less than 75 percent for two consecutive years.

The program was given a pass each time.

As a condition of the second waiver, in 2012 N.C. A&T officials promised to raise standards and increase licensing exam success. Despite that promise, graduates’ passing rates fell below the board’s minimum in 2012 and 2013.

At the April 10, 2014, meeting of the UNC Board of Governors, the issue came up again. Chancellor Harold Martin lobbied for another extension, promising to make improvements.

This time, N.C. A&T did not get its way. Several members of the Educational Planning Committee, who weren’t Board of Governors members when the previous waivers were granted, expressed frustration with the program and the fact that it hadn’t received closer scrutiny in the past.

The board voted to suspend the program after 2014 and convene a panel that would consider eliminating the program. The panel is scheduled to make its decision regarding program elimination this month; the board’s next meeting is scheduled Friday.

Enrollment funding

The UNC system’s enrollment funding formula is intended to help finance instruction costs as they fluctuate with enrollment changes. But campuses that overestimate their enrollment figures suffer only “minimal consequences,” according to a 2010 report by the General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division.

That is because the Board of Governors can ask the legislature to grant “hold harmless” status to a school, protecting the school’s base budget during periods when enrollment declines.

N.C. A&T overestimated its enrollment for the 2006-07 year. It was granted the “hold harmless” status and was able to keep $2.1 million for “unrealized growth.” That amount was not just a one-year gift, but was built into future enrollment funding.

From academic years 2006-07 through 2010-11, the university continued to receive “hold harmless” status, which means that it was able to keep more than $10 million during that span. (At press time, neither General Administration nor N.C. A&T officials had responded to a question asking whether the “hold harmless” status continued after 2010-11.)

In-state vs. out-of-state

UNC system policy places an 18 percent cap on the number of out-of-state students that universities can enroll. In part, the rule is designed to ensure that North Carolinians — who pay state taxes or come from households that do — take precedence in admissions.

After N.C. A&T exceeded the enrollment cap by 72 percent in 2012, the Board of Governors began considering the possibility of exempting select universities — mostly schools that system officials call “HMIs,” or historically minority institutions.

Martin has argued that his university has difficulty attracting enough talented students from North Carolina. The school has a focus on engineering — a highly competitive field — and North Carolina’s top minority students are recruited vigorously around the country.

Earlier this year, after debating the issue and receiving a letter from Martin promising to maintain a commitment to in-state students, the Board of Governors decided to run a “pilot program” in which N.C. A&T will, for one year, be able to increase its out-of-state student population to 25 percent. After the first-year trial, the UNC system president can renew the program.

As justification for its actions and to give future “pilot programs” legitimacy, in February the Board of Governors added a clause to its out-of-state enrollment policy stating that the board “may, on the president’s recommendation, authorize enrollment pilot programs that are exempt from the requirements of [the preceding rules].”

Jesse Saffron is a writer and Web editor with the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.