Even in a pandemic, more students enrolled at UNC System campuses than ever before
UNC System universities enrolled more students than ever before this fall, despite fears that the coronavirus pandemic would hold college students back.
Half of the system campuses reported record-breaking numbers of students this year.
At the system’s Board of Governors meeting Thursday, UNC System President Peter Hans said the record-high enrollment is remarkable in the midst of a national crisis and “unprecedented disruption” across the state and the world.
In the spring, college counselors and credit agencies predicted an enrollment collapse, and universities feared that students would respond to the uncertainty by delaying or reconsidering their college plans, Hans said.
Enrollment declines could’ve caused steep financial losses for UNC System institutions. Hans said dropping enrollment would also cause the system and the state to fall behind on “crucial progress toward equity, economic mobility and opportunity.”
Campus experience helped with enrollment
Hans said he thinks that universities re-opening with in-person classes and campus housing helped with the enrollment growth.
“It’s a great testament to our institutions, but the faculty and staff in particular, for finding a way to make it work for the students at each of our institutions,” Hans said at a media briefing after Thursday’s meeting.
Universities hoped for some version of a normal semester this fall, even with masks and social distancing, Hans said. But he expected campuses to adapt and adjust their operations as local conditions changed.
Currently, 13 of the 17 UNC System institutions continue to offer in-person learning for undergraduate students. UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and East Carolina University have transitioned online. UNC Charlotte delayed the start of in-person classes to October and is evaluating the situation locally.
“That mixed picture is what you would expect from a big and diverse university system, where each institution has its own conditions and capacities,” Hans said.
The UNC System announced record-high enrollment for the third year in a row, with more than 242,000 students at its universities this fall.
Not every campus saw more students on campus this fall, but there was an overall increase of 1% for undergraduate and graduate students combined.
Appalachian State University, Fayetteville State University, N.C. A&T State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington and Western Carolina University each reported record enrollment.
East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, N.C. Central University and Winston-Salem State University saw increases too, but not new records.
N.C. State, UNC Asheville, UNC Greensboro and the UNC School of the Arts saw decreases in enrollment.
Financial impact of enrollment
In July, the Board of Governors asked university budget experts to determine potential financial costs to the UNC System if classes were to move online and enrollment decreased, the News & Observer previously reported.
The report showed that with online only classes, if enrollment dropped 2% the system could lose about $607 million. That loss took into account drops in tuition and fee payments, financial aid, housing, parking, research and grants, and athletics.
Other scenarios in that report estimated losses of about $900 million across the system with a 5% drop in enrollment and nearly $2 billion with a 50% drop in enrollment.
Each campus would be impacted differently by online only classes and decreases in enrollment. Some schools like Fayetteville State estimated a few million dollars lost. Others like UNC-CH predicted they would lose hundreds of millions of dollars under different scenarios.
Over the summer when discussing reopening plans, UNC-CH administrators said the university would lose about $50 million if 10% of students deferred or went to a different school. UNC’s provost told faculty that the majority of UNC-CH students, particularly incoming freshman, wanted an in-person classroom experience with on campus housing. And there would likely be a significant enrollment decrease if UNC-CH didn’t offer that option.
Tuition and fees recommendations
As universities grapple with tough financial decisions, the board wants to ensure they remain affordable. The board’s budget and finance committee met Wednesday to discuss and vote on the guidance for campuses, which will each report back to the board with proposed costs.
UNC System Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Haygood said they are taking a “conservative approach” to potential tuition and fee adjustments in light of the financial strain COVID-19 has placed on students and their families.
The budget and finance committee voted to hold tuition costs flat for North Carolina students for the 2012-22 academic year. This would be the fifth year in a row that in-state undergraduate tuition does not increase.
“We need to offer students and families a little certainty in a deeply uncertain time,” Hans said. “Keeping a lid on tuition is the right thing to do for North Carolina and the right thing to do for families facing economic hardships.”
The guidance for campuses also suggests no increases in fees, with the exception of health services fees related to the pandemic. It also allows for increases in tuition for undergraduate and graduate out-of-state students.
The budget and finance committee also voted to allocate additional COVID-19 funds from the state to campuses, which was approved by the full board Thursday.
The UNC System received $13 million for personal protective equipment like face masks. That money will be distributed to universities based on the number of students living on campus and full-time employees working on campus. Another $5 million will be held in reserve and distributed to campuses to support COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and other needs determined by Hans.
Updates to chancellor search process
After a long debate with strong opposition from a few members, the board approved changes to the chancellor search process. The new policy allows the UNC System president to insert two candidates into each chancellor search process and then select a finalist from that list.
Those handpicked candidates will be interviewed and evaluated by the campus search committee, and at least one of them will be part of the slate of finalists referred by the campus board of trustees. The system president will then pick one or more of those finalists to present to the Board of Governors for approval.
Hans said the reasons behind the change were to improve succession planning and create stronger and deeper pools of candidates.
“An organization of our size is well-served in cultivating internal talent with professional development at every level,” Hans said. “And to actively seek external leaders with proven abilities to really prepare a diverse group of leaders for these roles.”
Hans said he deeply values the input of campus search committees, students and faculty, and that won’t change.
Board member Marty Kotis also said the president already has significant controls over chancellors like determining their pay. He said the president, who is ultimately the chancellors’ boss, should have more ability to hire them.
Several other board members, student representative Isaiah Green and a group of faculty expressed concerns that the new policy would give the president too much power and limit shared governance and campus input.
“If we pass this provision our president will have the ability to choose a chancellor unfettered,” board member Leo Daughtry said.
Daughtry tried to send the policy back to the personnel and tenure committee to be reworked. He said a campus board of trustees could very easily be bypassed and that the new policy will weaken and discourage them.
“It frankly puts too much power in the hands of our president,” Daughtry said. “And I just don’t think it’s right.”
Some also worry the new policy will make the pool of candidates smaller.
“Any potential candidate for chancellor who knows that the president has the ability and right or duty to submit two candidates is going to say to him or herself, ‘why am I getting in this race? It’s pre-determined,’” board member Terry Hutchens said.
In a media availability after the meeting, Hans said professional firms can still be hired to conduct the search, ads will still go out in higher education publications and trustees can still reach out to qualified candidates.
He and Board Chair Randy Ramsey reiterated that the goal of this policy is to cultivate the talent within the university system to identify future chancellors and prepare them for those roles.
The new policy does not apply to the ongoing chancellor searches at ECU and Fayetteville State University.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Even in a pandemic, more students enrolled at UNC System campuses than ever before."
