ISSUES
How Big? UNC, Students
Look at the Breaking Point
‘There’s a pretty
critical tipping
point between
30 and 35
[thousand].
With our
672 acres,
we can probably
get up to
about 29,700
before it really
starts to change
the entire nature
of the campus
and the way
we do things.’
Steve Allred ’ 74
Executive associate
provost and chair of
the Enrollment Policy
Advisory Committee
Growing up in Gainesville, Fla.,
alongside one of the nation’s largest
universities, roommates Mike
Bedinger and Adam Sherwood were no
strangers to the culture of colossal colleges.
And when their college search came to
a close, it was the size, not the proximity, of
the University of Florida that provoked the
two freshmen to move more than 550
miles north to Chapel Hill.
“I like [UNC’s] size a lot, because UF is
around 50,000 students, so this is less than
half of that,” Bedinger said of UNC.
While Carolina
continues to attract
students who are
interested in large
research institutions
as well as the feel of
a small liberal arts
college, steady
enrollment growth
has University
administrators working hard to pinpoint
a future breaking
point.
More than
27,700 students were
enrolled at UNC
last fall. The student
population has
grown 13 percent in
the past 10 years, and the administration is
planning for another 6 percent increase,
which would boost the University to about
29,700 students by 2015.
During a Board of Trustees’ retreat last
summer, Provost Bernadette Gray-Little
presented evidence indicating that a student population of 30,000 “appears to represent a break point beyond which academic quality will be seriously threatened.”
To ensure that Carolina maintains its
appeal to the country’s most promising students, administrators drafted two possible
scenarios that were tested against various
growth implications. The first tested a student population of 30,000, and the second
tested a population of 35,000.
“There’s a pretty critical tipping point
between 30 and 35 [thousand],” said Executive Associate Provost Steve Allred ’ 74,
who serves as chair of the Enrollment Policy Advisory Committee. “With our 672
acres, we can probably get up to about
29,700 before it really starts to change the
entire nature of the campus and the way
we do things.”
The University’s gentle push to expand
is in large part due to the rising pressures
of a growing state. As more talented stu-
JUSTIN SMITH
dents receive their high school diplomas
across North Carolina, the number of
UNC applicants rises.
While University administrators are in
the driver’s seat, they are not always in complete control of the direction enrollment
takes. The N.C. General Assembly accounts
for 24 percent of UNC’s revenues, and lawmakers can leverage that into some direction on whether and how much it and the
other campuses in the UNC System grow.
“What’s important about the Legislature
is that they support the campuses through
enrollment growth funding,” Allred said.
Last year, he said, the General Assembly
decided to incorporate enrollment growth
In a survey, the
highest-achieving,
most academically
talented incoming
students were the
first to balk at the
idea of enrollment
increases. They like
smaller classes, yet
they also like the
diversity afforded by
a bigger student
body.
