UNC might have to curb growth

Faced with the possibility of a $29.4 million reduction in state funds for the coming academic year, UNC-system leaders have expressed concern about the cuts’ potential impact on the long-term goal of expanding access for in-state students.

Increasing enrollment to accommodate a burgeoning population of high school graduates has been one of the system’s core initiatives in recent years.

But recent comments by system President Molly Broad and Board of Governors Chairman Brad Wilson suggest that the goal could be threatened if state spending on higher education does not keep pace with the booming student population.

“To fail to accommodate that enrollment growth would be unprecedented,” Broad said during last Thursday’s board meeting. “It would be to fail to fulfill the university’s mission.”

“To have to fulfill that mission out of the hides of the other students seems equally unfair,” she added.

Wilson said continued budget cuts of the magnitude proposed last week by the N.C. legislature’s joint education appropriations subcommittee could make it increasingly difficult to strike a balance between access and quality.

“How can we continue to let students pour in, but yet we’re not able to deliver to those that are already there and those that are going to continue to come?” he said, also during Thursday’s BOG meeting.

“One way to moderate resource allocation is to narrow that front door.”

Broad said any move to curtail enrollment growth would be wrong for the state and for the university, but campus officials said the combination of increasing enrollment and flat appropriations is severely stretching resources.

“There comes a point where you cannot protect access any longer,” said Mark Lanier, assistant to the chancellor at UNC-Wilmington.

“With the severity of the cuts that are being discussed right now, it’s something we have to take a look at.”

UNC-W grew by 4.5 percent between the 2003-04 academic year and the fall 2004 semester, adding 495 students to reach a total population of 11,574.

“I think the reality throughout the state is that no one wants access to be diminished in any way,” Lanier said. “(But) given the low level of state appropriations that we receive, we may not be able to protect access.”

Western Carolina University, one of six system schools designated a focused-growth institution, has experienced a rapid expansion during the last several years.

The school’s student population grew by more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2004.

“It’s not difficult to give access,” said Chancellor John Bardo. “It’s difficult to give access with quality.”

Despite added funding that comes with WCU’s status as a focused-growth school, Bardo said, per-student expenditures from the state have declined.

Overall, the UNC system is projected to grow by about 7,000 students in the 2005-06 academic year, which would represent an increase of 3.6 percent.

That comes on the heels of steady growth for the last several years, all while state funding has remained essentially flat.

“It is not a long-term sustainable situation,” said Jeff Davies, UNC-system vice president for finance.

Still, Broad said she hopes the university won’t face a choice between enhancing access and maintaining quality. A move to cut enrollment growth, she said, would be a significant blow.

“It seems to me that to consider that is to fundamentally go against not only the mission of the university, but all of the strategic directives that have guided our actions over these past few years.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.