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September 30, 2004
We have reached the magic “freeze date” for enrollment
this semester, so I thought you might be interested in knowing
a bit about where we ended up. Additionally, because of the
timing of the budget process, some information has only now
become available regarding the impact of increased enrollment
on many areas of the University. This first Chancellor’s
Update will cover these two issues.
Current Enrollment and Expectations for Next Year
This is an excellent year for enrollment at Western—possibly
the best overall enrollment picture in our history. As you
may recall, the Board of Governors had approved an enrollment
target of 8,260 for Western this semester. Our actual enrollment
is 8,396. The freshman class includes 1,578 students with
an average SAT of 1027, up four points over last year and
67 points since we began raising admissions standards. For
the first time in the history of the University, the average
SAT is above the national average. Additionally, the average
high school GPA increased from 3.25 to 3.3.
The largest single source of new freshmen is Mecklenburg
County , followed by Wake, Forsyth, and Buncombe. Only eight
percent of freshmen reside out-of-state; this represents an
area of potential growth for the University.
Overall enrollment grew by approximately 11 percent, up from
7,561 last year. More importantly, the number of credit hours
taken by students increased significantly. As many of you
may recall, our expected increase in funding for each succeeding
year is based on the net increase in credit hours generated
rather than FTE or the actual number of students. Even with
the addition of 52 faculty positions this year, our actual
enrollment generated more faculty positions than we had requested
and funded. We anticipate, therefore, that next year’s
enrollment will result in an infusion of additional new positions.
The greatest gains in enrollment were in distance education
and in the undergraduate program. We were up in all important
categories of undergraduate students: new freshmen, transfers,
and continuing students. New resident credit graduate student
enrollment did not achieve its targets and, as a result, we
were slightly under-enrolled at the graduate level compared
to our overall target. Undergraduate enrollment was greatly
strengthened by the 74.0 percent freshman retention rate,
representing a five percent increase over last year. This
alone resulted in 75 additional students in Fall 2004. Congratulations
to everyone who contributed to improving this very important
indicator! I especially want to thank Fred Hinson, Allen Lomax,
and Keith Corzine and their staffs for all of their very hard
work in implementing our retention model.
Based on our current best estimates, we see the possibility
of as many as 9,000 to 9,100 students enrolling in Western
next fall. This level of enrollment represents another milestone
for the University, and it has some implications for how we
allocate space and offer classes.
Those of you who were here in 1999 may recall that Eva Klein
and Associates conducted a state-wide study of the capital
needs of the university system. This study resulted in the
2000 bond issue that has played a very important role in developing
the physical plant of the University. The results of that
study, which were approved both by the Board of Governors
and the Legislature, made certain assumptions regarding the
growth rates and size of the universities. Our plan was based
on an estimated enrollment of 9,400 students by 2010. Subsequent
to the Klein study, the Board of Governors assigned a higher
expected enrollment to Western of 10,500 students by 2012.
At anything near the current rate of growth, we could well
achieve the original estimated level of enrollment by 2006
and the higher target by 2008.
Given the significantly improved reputation of the University,
the quality of academic programs you have created, new programs
that are in the planning and approval phases, and improvements
in campus life for students, there is no reason to believe
that Western’s enrollment will not continue to grow
for the foreseeable future. Moreover, because of the rapid
increase in Hispanic students, as well as continuing general
in-migration, demographic projections are showing continued
increases in the number of high school graduates in North
Carolina for many years to come. Locally, we are seeing a
significant shift in the interest people have in living in
the mountains of North Carolina . Ten years ago, those of
us who lived here understood the quality of life this region
allowed; now southwestern North Carolina is beginning to be
seen as “cool” and something of an “in”
place. This can be expected to add to the interest students
have in attending Western.
Based on what we believe are longer-term trends, we can expect
to grow faculty and staff by a very large percentage over
the next three to four years. It is possible, for example,
that we could see an additional 100 faculty positions (in
addition to the 52 added this year) over the next few years
if the growth of the University continues. This creates something
of a “space crunch,” and the Executive Council
and I are beginning to lay out alternative scenarios to handle
the situation:
- We will continue to increase admissions standards
to assure that the students accepted as traditional
undergraduates are able to achieve high levels of
performance.
- We are exploring the possibility of completing another
privatized residence hall by next fall to house an
additional 250 students.
- We will open the master plan for significant revisions
as soon as we complete our major property acquisitions.
This will allow us to create a flexible plan that
can accommodate more students and faculty.
- We are exploring the possibility of seeking funding
for a faculty office building to house the growing
number of faculty. Analysis of our current buildings
shows that we are not going to see an immediate shortage
of classroom space, but faculty office space will
become a premium in the near future.
- We will seek full funding for the School of Health
and Gerontological Sciences building since that major
new facility will alleviate some of our most overcrowded
conditions.
- We will work closely with the Office of the President
and the Board of Governors to seek funding for a new
College of Education and Allied Professions building
to allow this college to enhance significantly its ability
to produce teachers. We also will seek funding to
fully renovate Killian to allow expansion of such
departments as English and Communications.
- We will encourage the development of off-campus
teaching centers in surrounding counties to reduce
the pressure on the Cullowhee campus. We have been
approached by leaders in Hickory , Rutherfordton, Hendersonville
, and Andrews with requests to expand our presence in those
communities. We have begun working closely with Haywood
Community College and are offering courses on that
campus; our presence there can be expanded. We also
need to examine the possibility of a teaching-oriented
center in Macon County.
- Various forms of distance education will become
increasingly important, and they can help relieve
pressure on our main campus facilities. We will need
to plan for expanded support for distance education, and
we will need to make additional investments in our
distance education facilities and technologies.
It appears that we will see over time a significant increase
in the number of traditional students in Cullowhee and a
significant increase in the number of older adult students
in teaching locations around the region. These trends will
affect many departments, and I hope that each department
is examining how these trends will affect your programs.
Staff Positions and Compensation
At the time of the opening faculty meeting we were in the
process of distributing the budget to the divisions. As you
may be aware, the Board of Governors’ budgeting process
provides guidance on the number of faculty positions, but
not on the number of staff positions. You should be aware
that the divisions chose to create an additional 41 SPA and
EPA non-faculty positions.
Because of budget cuts that the University sustained over
the last three years, we were forced to eliminate many unfilled
staff positions and to delay hiring replacement staff even
where the position could be filled. Many staff members, therefore,
have been experiencing an increased workload with very little
improvement in their compensation. This is always a difficult
situation, but it has been made even more difficult by the
fact that we were able to obtain local tuition funding to
improve the salaries of faculty and non-faculty EPA employees,
but we were prohibited from using this same source of funds
to support SPA employee salaries.
It should be mentioned that from 1997 through 1999, Western
used a very high percentage of its salary reserves (more than
$400 thousand) to improve staff pay at a time when no such
funds were available to provide additional compensation to
faculty members. The remainder of the salary reserve funds
was used to reduce the burden of several years of budget cuts
for the rest of the University; consequently that source of
funds is depleted, and it has not yet had time to be restored.
Continued enrollment growth over the next several years should
assist in restoring some of those funds.
All of us are concerned with the compensation levels of our
hard-working staff. It seems to be a particularly onerous
problem since we have been given opportunities to improve
the compensation of our faculty. Clearly, the University cannot
function without our hard-working, loyal staff members. So,
it is important that as we grow enrollment we try to assist
these loyal employees as well.
This is a particularly difficult issue because SPA employees
are governed by the state-wide Personnel Act while faculty
and non-faculty EPA employees are not covered by that act.
SPA employee compensation levels and rules are set by state
government, and we have no control over these processes. This
severely limits what we can do to improve the compensation
for SPA employees. However, after consulting with the Staff
Forum, it is clear that we need to take several actions which
are available to us, and we will work together to assure that
our employees receive all compensation the state allows. We
will begin with several actions:
1. Four new positions will not be filled using state funds.
Two of these positions will be eliminated and two police positions
will be filled using specific grant funds. This will create
a pool of approximately $125,000 that can be used this year
for in-range adjustments for SPA employees, as well as provide
some funds for promotions. This reduces the actual number
of new staff positions created this year to 39.
2. I have asked Chuck Wooten and Kathy Wong to work with
the Staff Forum to conduct a study of SPA employee compensation
with the goal of moving our SPA employees’ average wage
to the UNC System average.
3. Assuming enrollment growth continues, a portion of new
funding will be set aside for SPA employee in-range salary
adjustments. I will seek the advice of the Staff Forum on
what proportions of funding should be set aside for new positions
and what proportion to improve compensation through legal
adjustments in pay.
4. I will request that Keith Ashe, chair of the Staff Forum,
join me in meetings with our local legislators to help them
understand more fully the compensation needs of all our employees.
I hope you find this discussion useful and that you are having
a great start to your semester. Have a great year!
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