Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on January 26, 2012.
The University of North Carolina has figured out a cure for its growing pains: stop growing.
For the second straight year, the number of students attending UNC system schools is down slightly—quite the change from the recent past, when enrollment outpaced both state population and GDP. We congratulate UNC’s leadership on its shift in direction. The end to enrollment growth is a welcome development at a time when the system’s resources are strained due to the prolonged economic slump.
UNC has long made access to higher education one of its highest priorities. Its leaders have wanted to make sure that every qualified person in North Carolina can get an education. But over the years, the constant push toward higher enrollments has meant that our universities have attracted many students who should not be there.
Any faculty member can tell you that most classrooms have a group of bored, disengaged, or unprepared students. Frequently, those students drop out with few additional skills, thousands of dollars of debt and a feeling of failure.
UNC’s past focus on access led to explosive growth. Between 2002 and 2009, enrollment grew 26.8 percent, while the state’s population grew only 13 percent. For most of that time, state appropriations kept pace with enrollment. New programs, centers and institutes proliferated.
Now the rubber is hitting the road. With budget cuts for 2011-12 totaling over $400 million, class sizes have risen, students complain that they cannot get the necessary classes and prize faculty are leaving.
But the number of students, both full-time and part-time, has dropped from a peak of 222,322 in the fall of 2009 to 220,305 in 2011. If the leveling off of enrollment continues, many of these problems should sort themselves out over the next few years.
At first glance, readers may assume that the declines were caused by the recession and the rise in tuition. Those factors may have played a small role, but higher academic standards seem to be primarily responsible for the decrease.
The system has been gradually raising admissions standards. This fall, the minimum standard for admission to a UNC school was a 2.3 high school GPA and a 750 combined verbal and math score on the SAT. By focusing on quality instead of quantity, 12 of the 16 universities in the system saw a rise in average SAT scores for incoming freshmen this past fall.
Elizabeth City State University has historically had the system’s lowest average SAT scores for incoming freshmen. This year the freshman class was 190 students smaller than in 2010, while average SAT scores rose from 841 to 864. At the Jan. 12 Board of Governors’ meeting, ECSU Chancellor Willie Gilchrist said that an increase in the minimum SAT score requirement was largely responsible. Roughly 700 applicants who would have met the school’s acceptance criteria in previous years were refused admission for the fall of 2011.
Overall enrollment also declined at N.C. Central University, because the school set stricter standards for continuing students. According to Chancellor Charlie Nelms, 556 students did not return because their grade average fell below 2.0. Previously, the standard had been roughly 1.5.
N.C. State University also saw a decline of 71 students. This admittedly tiny drop reflected a deliberate decision to put the lid on enrollment. Chancellor Randy Woodson explained after the Board of Governors meeting that “we had gotten too big.” For a flagship like State, limiting enrollment and boosting the quality of its student body improve its reputation.
Making UNC schools more selective does not mean denying access to higher education. Gilchrist said that he hoped students who weren’t admitted to ECSU would enroll at a community college and make themselves more college-ready. Nelms said his school has started a “reverse-transfer” agreement with several community colleges. This will allow students who were forced to leave Central because of poor grades to work their way back to the university.
In sum, there was good news for UNC this fall: a return to a system that expects its freshmen to enter prepared and to stay in school and graduate. Sometimes less really is more.