28% by 2014
Amy Dalrymple, The Forum
Published Sunday, February 10, 2008
The new magic number at North Dakota State University is 16,000.
That’s how many students are expected to be enrolled at NDSU by 2014 if growth trends continue.
President Joseph Chapman established an enrollment management committee to examine how the campus should prepare for a potential increase of 3,500 students – a nearly 28 percent increase from last fall’s record enrollment of 12,527.
“I’m not laying out any goals,” Chapman said. “This is about understanding that we are going to grow and we have an obligation to have all the pieces in place to accommodate this.”
While fall semester traditionally has a higher enrollment number, NDSU reported last week a spring enrollment record – 11,699 students – for the ninth consecutive year.
The student body should grow by another 2 percent this fall or even higher compared to 2007, said Prakash Mathew, vice president for student affairs.
After Chapman came to NDSU in 1999, he set a goal for the university to enroll 12,000 students by 2006, which was accomplished in 2004.
This time around, the 16,000 figure identified isn’t a goal, Chapman said.
It’s a “what if” scenario that will become a reality if NDSU continues to see similar enrollment increases, Chapman said.
“What we don’t know is where does it really go?” Chapman said. “How much could we grow?”
He asked the enrollment management committee to study what NDSU would need to keep up with the growth – everything from more faculty to new buildings to additional scholarships.
NDSU also hired a private consultant to develop a master plan for the campus.
“As we grow, what I want to make certain is we maintain the quality for our students,” Chapman said.
Areas of growth
NDSU expects to continue seeing significant growth in enrollment of international students and graduate students, Mathew said.
This spring, NDSU enrolled a record 828 international students.
That number is expected to climb as NDSU builds more relationships with foreign countries, such as India and Sri Lanka.
As NDSU adds new programs, the graduate enrollment has grown to nearly 1,800, or about 14 percent of the total student population.
Graduate School Dean David Wittrock said he wants to see graduate students make up 20 percent of the student body.
“The whole image of NDSU has changed, and people think about us now as a place where you can go to grad school,” said Wittrock, co-chairman of the enrollment committee.
Undergraduate enrollment is also expected to grow despite declining high school enrollments in the region, Mathew said.
That’s because NDSU has become an “institution of choice,” Mathew said, and is drawing more students from other states.
NDSU had its largest-ever freshman class last fall with 2,154 students, with more students coming from Minnesota than North Dakota.
More North Dakota and Minnesota students who took the ACT last year listed NDSU as their first-choice university than any other school in North Dakota.
Other enrollment increases will come from new evening and weekend programs NDSU is rolling out starting this fall.
The university is also adding more degree programs that can be completed online, which is expected to serve different students than the university now reaches.
Athletics continues to have a positive impact on enrollment as NDSU transitions to Division I next year and sees more national exposure, Chapman said.
“I think the next five years will be a time of growing recognition of NDSU as a true major national research university,” Chapman said. “It will continue to be a transformation of the institution.”
Space crunch
A critical issue for NDSU is having enough space for more students and the additional faculty and staff who will be needed.
Although some of the new students will be served online, the majority will be on campus, Chapman said.
Classroom and lab space is now tight and some professors share offices.
“We’re built for about 8,000 students,” said Provost Craig Schnell. “And we’ve got over 12,000.”
The private consultant NDSU is working with will assess the existing facilities and make recommendations on what the university will need over the next 10 years, said John Adams, vice president for finance and administration.
The firm will provide a report this summer, he said.
Two new downtown buildings will alleviate some of the pressure, Chapman said.
Klai Hall, which houses art and architecture, will open next fall. Richard H. Barry Hall, which houses the College of Business and the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, will open in 2009.
The enrollment management committee also is studying how many faculty and support staff will be needed.
NDSU is now recruiting 32 new faculty and 14 student advisers to keep up with current enrollment growth.
To accommodate another 3,500 students, NDSU would need to hire 175 faculty members to maintain the university’s target student-faculty ratio of 20 to 1.
With additional students, NDSU would hope for more state funding from the Legislature, Adams said.
The growth in students would translate to more tuition revenue, but it would not cover the entire cost of education, he said.
NDSU may also need to rely on private funding and research dollars to support the growth, Adams said.
Neighborhood impact
Residents of the neighborhood near NDSU have concerns about where more students will live and where they will park, said Ken Enockson, president of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association.
They already see a decrease in home ownership as more single-family homes are turned into rental units, Enockson said.
That creates congestion and complaints about parking and loud parties, he said.
Construction that’s under way now will provide more housing for students.
The Living Learning Center West residence hall opens this summer with 170 beds.
Three new off-campus developments on 12th Avenue North will add 84 apartment units and a development on 19th Avenue North will add 75 units.
Dawn Mayo, assistant city planner, said additional enrollment growth may spur even more development like that.
Parking congestion is the No. 1 issue for neighborhood residents, Enockson said.
NDSU has about 1,000 parking spaces that aren’t being used, but those spots are in lots like the Fargodome lot where students don’t like to park, said Bruce Frantz, facilities management director.
So instead of spending $110 on a parking permit, students opt to park on the street.
Residents complain that students block driveways, take up parking for guests and create safety hazards, Enockson said.
The consultant firm will likely include in its report a recommendation about a parking ramp, Frantz said. The current revenue from parking permits would not be enough to pay for it, he said.
“There’s no question they cost more to build,” Adams said. “But we may be getting to a point where we may need one in the near future.”
Residents hope to be involved with planning for NDSU’s expansion, Enockson said.
“We’re not necessarily saying we don’t want to see that growth,” he said. “But we really need to partner both with NDSU and the city to figure out a way to maintain that in a way that’s not detrimental to us.”
Readers can reach Forum reporter Amy Dalrymple at (701) 241-5590
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