THE ISSUE: The Board of Governors is currently considering including in its five-year strategic plan a proposal to raise the cap on the amount of out-of-state students allowed at each system school. The cap currently stands at 18 percent per school. Editorial board members argue the pros and cons of lifting the cap.
Read editorial board member Patrick Ryan’s opposing viewpoint.
To some, the cap on out-of-state students might seem antiquated and Draconian, an artifact of a bygone era that does nothing but keep out talented students.
But the cap serves a real purpose. It ensures that the University remains committed to its goal of serving the people of North Carolina. Removing or raising the cap devalues the importance of that goal.
I should probably mention at this point that I’m an out-of-state student. It might seem as though I’m callously slamming the door behind me on fellow out-of-state applicants. Or, at the very least, that opposing more out-of-state students is selfish and hypocritical.
But I don’t think this is the case. Rather, keeping the cap where it is helps ensure that out-of-state students will want to come here in the future. Out-of-staters bring diversity, talent and money to UNC but, should too many be admitted, the very identity of the University would change.
It is the strength of UNC’s ties to this state that makes it different. The school’s history and its commitment to the people of the state give it a special place in national higher education. Cut the school loose from its North Carolina mooring and it becomes just another academically competitive, if uninspiring, four-year university. We don’t need another Wake Forest.
All of this emotional appeal is good, you may counter, but won’t more out-of-state students make UNC a better school? Shouldn’t that be the ultimate goal?
Numbers alone don’t make a university great. Rather, a university’s greatness comes from an interaction of factors. Let in too many out-of-staters and UNC loses so much of what makes it special and draws people here in the first place. Let in too few, and academics suffer.
