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The University's growth over the next decade may not be as dramatic as expected.
Instead of the approximately 6,000 extra students that University leaders offered to enroll by 2008, the General Administration staff is circulating a plan that would ask Carolina to grow by a more modest 3,200 students.
That would increase the University's total enrollment to 27,500 in 2008, rather than the expected 30,175.
The latest enrollment numbers stem from a series of options that the Board of Governors will consider at its March and April meetings. Judith Pulley, vice president for planning for the UNC system, told Carolina officials about the options, which she plans to present to the board.
Because the Board of Governors must approve the final enrollment numbers, the University's share could change several more times before a decision is made.
"It is indeed a fluid situation," said Provost Dick Richardson, who chaired the University's Task Force on Student Enrollment and is keeping watch on the issue.
Richardson said that the drop in Carolina's share of the expected statewide enrollment surge comes from a revised estimate in the number of graduate students expected during the next decade.
The University's Task Force on Student Enrollment had recommended adding 2,000 more graduate students. Now the General Administration reports that Carolina will add no more than 500.
"The news strikes me as mixed," Richardson said. "In one way it is good news, especially for the town, because people were concerned about the impact of growing by 6,000 students.
"Yet one reason we went for the increase was to get the resources those students would bring so we could improve the campus and our graduate schools," Richardson said. "This change slashes the available funds."
Richardson said the University's offer to grow by 6,000 students did succeed in showing the General Administration that Carolina was a willing partner in helping meet the expected enrollment surge.
The option that would hold Carolina to 27,500 students focuses on directing enrollment growth to schools with excess capacity. That includes the system's smaller schools and East Carolina University, which hopes to grow substantially in the next decade.
Richardson plans to discuss the enrollment situation with the University's Board of Trustees at the board's March 26 meeting.
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