The Board of Trustees on Nov. 19 endorsed a recommendation that the University grow to 30,175 students by the year 2008.
The trustees endorsed a recommendation by the Task Force on Student Enrollment, which spent five months examining what impact any level of growth would have the quality of education and life at the University.
The task force came up with the 30,175 figure -- a 26.6 percent increase over the current enrollment Ñ after consulting with the University's deans, outside consultants and dozens of constituent groups on campus.
Provost Dick Richardson explained that the committee settled on 30,175 after deciding that the University should aim to maintain it's current share of the UNC system's students and that growth, if supported with state money, would be good for the campus.
"We think this is a responsible position to take and we view this as a genuine opportunity," Richardson said.
Yet Richardson and Chancellor Michael Hooker both stipulated to the trustees that they recommended the increase to 30,175 students based on an accompanying list of guiding principles, foremost of which was that the increase would not hurt the quality of a Carolina education.
The need for the report stemmed from the extra 44,000 students that UNC General Administration anticipates will want to attend the 16-campus system by 2008.
The trustees accepted the report, although several asked questions about the ratio of in-state to out-of-state students.
The task force recommended maintaining the current ratio of 82/18 of in-state to out-of-state students, although Richardson said the committee didn't consider that ratio to be a hard-set standard.
Trustee William Armfield IV asked if the committee considered increasing the number of out-of-state students to help cover the costs of enrollment increases. Richardson said the committee did not.
And Trustee William Jordan asked if the University shouldn't accept even more in-state students Ñ possibly increasing enrollment even higher than 30,175 Ñ since that was the group General Administration was concerned about serving.
In the end, the trustees unanimously approved the recommendation.
Hooker endorsed the task force's report, an effort he has repeatedly referred to as the most important decision he expects he'll make as chancellor.
"It would be irresponsible not to do our fair share, but it would be equally irresponsible not to assure that we maintain the quality of education at this institution," Hooker said. "I think we will be able to look back in 10 years and say we did the right thing for this University, its students and its alumni."
The report has been sent to General Administration, which received similar reports from the other 15 campuses. The information will be used to plan for the expected increase in enrollment system-wide over the next decade, including setting budget priorities.
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