UNCW Chancellor Reveals ‘Strategic Plan’ to Increase Enrollment Despite Limited Space on Campus

In 1947, UNCW opened with less than 300 students. Today, some Freshmen find themselves living in common rooms due to the lack of available dorms in residence halls. Still, UNCW's chancellor moves forward with plans to grow the University.

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With college application season in full swing, UNCW’s Office of Admissions is working to bring in an unprecedented freshman class size of 2,250 students in the fall of 2018. But as enrollment numbers continue to rise, the risk of overcrowding UNCW’s 661-acre campus is now stronger than ever.

Nearly 2,600 people visited UNCW’s campus on Saturday, September 23rd for ‘Seahawk Saturday,’ an admissions program designed to showcase the University to parents and prospective Seahawks. According to Hannah Morgan, Assistant Director of First Year Admission, the 985 students, including 87 students from out-of-state, who attended the event, were able to take campus and residence hall tours, visit an academic-department fair, and attend socials to meet other applicants and UNCW faculty and advisors.

Seahawk Saturday “is an open-house event that allows students to come to campus and check out the student services, academics, and offerings in general that our campus can give them,” said Paul Willeboorse, First-Year Admission Coordinator.

Founded in 1947, UNCW opened its doors to a mere 238 students. Today, the campus is home to approximately 14,000 undergraduates, with nearly 50 majors, 29 master programs and 4 doctoral programs. And while the University has made extreme growth within the last 70 years, UNCW Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli promises that change is still brewing.

Events like Seahawk Saturday are held to promote the University in an effort to increase applicants. And for Chancellor Sartarelli, growing UNCW is the main goal on his mind. Known as his ‘Strategic Plan,’ Sartarelli is looking to increase the incoming freshman class for fall of 2018 to 2,250 students, an increase from the 2,145 freshmen here this fall.

Dr. Jose V. "Zito" Sartarelli, who became Chancellor in 2015, hopes his 'Strategic Plan' will bring UNCW an incoming freshman class of 2,250 students in fall of 2018, an increase from the freshman class of fall 2017, which had 2,145 students.

Since traditional freshman students are now required to live on campus, an increase of just 100 freshmen could have unintended consequences, as overcrowding is already an issue for UNCW housing, according to Resident Assistant Will Raegan.

“My sophomore year in Graham Hewlett, we had extra residents and had to turn common rooms into housing rooms. For my junior year in Cornerstone, I had a resident living with me for over half of the year.”

Common rooms are traditionally used as a communal space for residents to enjoy. But when turned into a dorm, it can house up to four more students. And while this creates more housing, the renovation takes away the intentional purpose of the room and limits studying and social space for residents. And if 100 more Freshman are brought in this fall, Raegan said he wouldn’t be surprised if this type of make-shift housing continues to happen.

Peter Groenendyk, director of housing, confirmed that there is talk of expanding Freshmen housing. But according to Groenendyk, those details remain under discussion and no final decisions, including the decision to move forward, have been made. Willeboordse, however, revealed a more detailed account of these plans.

“Galloway is going to get a renovation in the near future. They also have plans to add additional residence hall spaces,” said Willeboordse. “That [lack of housing] is definitely the biggest inhibiting factor in bringing more students to campus.”

For now, Sartarelli has centered his main focus on growing UNCW’s virtual population to combat the risk of overcrowding on-campus housing.

“He understands that right now housing and residence life, including parking, is not equipped for that many people,” said Megan Hinson, President of UNCW Student Ambassadors. “He’s looking in to bringing in transfers and online students first and foremost.”

This approach targets non-traditional students, which means students who are not coming to college straight from high school. Most of the time, these students have given military service or are adults seeking a college degree much later in life. While Sartarelli is ready to see UNCW’s enrollment numbers soar, Hinson says not everyone is on board for the flight.

“A lot of people have different views on higher education. Some people are proud that UNCW is small school with smaller class sizes,” said Hinson. But the desire to keep UNCW smaller is not advantageous from a business standpoint, Hinson admitted. “Obviously it looks better to have a bigger enrollment, but a lot of other things go wrong with that—like having to increase housing, parking, and food. It definitely shows his [Sartarelli’s] view on higher education.”

Looking ahead to the future, UNCW’s Office of Admissions will continue to hold open-house events throughout the school year, including daily tours lead by UNCW’s Student Ambassadors, who act as a liaison between the Admissions Office and prospective students.

The application deadline for Freshman is February 1st, 2018 and March 1st, 2018 for transfer students.

All accepted applicants will be notified by April 1st, and will receive an invitation to Seahawk Preview day. This open-house is similar to Seahawk Saturday, but only allows admitted freshmen and transfer students to attend. Housing confirmed that additional information regarding residence hall expansion will be released in January of 2018.