Keeping Carolina ‘best’ while
increasing enrollment is daunting |
 |
Can Carolina grow in size without shrinking in stature? The
question may seem simple enough, but it has no fast or easy answers, as Student
Body President J.J. Raynor and Trustee John Ellison understand well.
Raynor and Ellison were asked by Board of Trustees Chair
Roger Perry to explore strategies Carolina could employ to raise the level of
quality while adding 4,000 to 5,000 students to the current enrollment of
nearly 29,000 by 2017.
Last week, the pair presented their findings to trustees in
the 16-page “Best Place to Teach, Learn and Discover Report.” The report
incorporated ideas and suggestions from faculty members, students and staff
members who participated in the process through various forums, meetings and
e-mail.
This daunting challenge, Ellison said, rests on the
assumption that there will be 30,000 additional students graduating from North
Carolina high schools in 2017 and that an increased percentage of them will
seek admission to the
UNC system.
Ellison said it was important to remember that the numbers
were projections, not facts. But if these demographic changes occurred, he
said, the University would be hard pressed to maintain quality because the
number of highly qualified high school graduates within the state was not
growing at the same rate as the total number of high school graduates.
A marketing study conducted last summer by the Arts and
Science Group LLC revealed that prospective students’ perception of the
University’s quality is influenced primarily by the academic quality of their
potential classmates.
And therein lies the rub.
In 2005, for instance, 4,430 high school graduates had SAT
scores of 1300 or higher; three years later, the number fell to 4,319. The
report also found that if Carolina grows without maintaining quality, the
result would be a dramatic drop in applications – as much as 20 percent.
Ellison also reviewed the challenges of recruiting top
graduate students. The graduate programs have a large number of top students
who apply, but the yield rates are less than desirable because peer
institutions often offer more financial assistance over longer periods,
combined with lighter workloads.
As for the ongoing challenge of faculty recruitment and
retention, the report cites five strategies to generate the $20 million a year
necessary to bring all non-medical school tenured and tenure-track faculty up
to the 80th percentile of their peers:
 Increase
state funding;
Increase
endowment funds for new distinguished professorships;
Raise
tuition and use a portion of additional revenues to improve faculty pay;
Use
overhead receipts from research grants for salaries of research faculty; and
Supplement
or replace the state benefit package with one that is more competitive with
peer institutions.
Based on a 2007–08 faculty salary survey by the
American Association of University Professors, full professors at Carolina
earned $6,100 less than the 80th percentile of their peers ($144,600);
associate professors at Carolina earned $4,200 less than the 80th percentile
($95,100); and assistant professors earned $5,250 less than the 80th percentile
($82,150).
Raynor reviewed the report’s recommendations for improving
the academic experience for students, including the creation of a minor in
solving the world’s problems. That drew the interests of trustees, including
some who suggested working to improve public schools in North Carolina in order
to increase the number of top-level students who could become Carolina
students.
Other recommendations included expanding first-year
seminars, undergraduate research opportunities and the Honors Program, while
lowering class size to foster more personalized academic interaction.
In his concluding remarks, Ellison said he hoped the
report’s recommendations would be incorporated into the new academic plan to be
developed under the leadership of Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Bernadette Gray-Little as well as the focus of the next
fundraising campaign.
Gray-Little praised Ellison and Raynor for the quality of
their work and the suggestions solicited from the University community. She
said the end product was both reasonable and creative.
The challenge, however, is finding ways to improve quality
in a period of economic retrenchment.
To read the report, refer to bestcarolina.unc.edu. |
