WILMINGTON — The UNCW Board of Trustees met ahead of the summer break last week and received important updates affecting the future of the university.
READ MORE: UNCW to lease private apartment complex to accommodate student overflow
At Thursday’s educational planning and programs committee meeting, Provost James Winebrake presented data on enrollment trends, including the highest growing and largest programs on campus.
The programs with the highest growth over the last five years all belong to the newly formed College of Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts: bachelors in interdisciplinary studies (109% growth), masters in integrated marketing and communication (100% growth), bachelors in digital arts (73%).
In the top 10 highest growing programs, the College of Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts tied with the College of Science and Engineering. The two colleges used to be conjoined in the now-defunct College of Arts and Sciences.
Their separation last year was to increase capacity for two respective deans to garner resources, though some professors were concerned the move would result in the channeling of more resources toward STEM programs, putting the arts on the back burner.
The College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts also have one more program in the university’s top 10 largest programs, with communication studies and criminology. The College of Science and Engineering’s entry is psychology, the fourth-highest on the list.
However, the College of Health and Human Services beat out both, with four programs in the top 10, though the Cameron School of Business occupies two of the top three slots, which are BSN professional nursing (789 students), bachelors in business administration (729 students), masters in business administration (290 students). Winebrake noted that just because a program was not growing, nor had a lot of students, didn’t mean it wasn’t bringing anything to the table.
“A lot of the programs and humanities, social science and the arts, and science and engineering are delivering courses for our general education curriculum. They’re generating thousands of student credit hours, students are taking these programs for minors,” Winebrake said.
He used music education as an example; it only graduated two students last year, though many students take a music course as part of their general education.
There are also a few new programs that don’t have a trend yet, including cybersecurity and coastal engineering. The former currently has 125 students, but is expected to reach 170 by the end of this school year when underclassmen declare a major.
Programs in line for UNC System approval include a bachelor’s degree in software engineering and a master’s in physician assistant studies.
The enrollment metrics give university leadership an indication on where the university should invest more resources. It also shows interest in humanities and arts programs, despite the focus on STEM programs at the local and state level.
The North Carolina General Assembly provided $8 million for the Health Education Building in last year’s budget. The university is also planning two integrated sciences buildings for the College of Science and Engineering and College of Health and Human Services to collaborate.
These two colleges bring in the majority of the $16.3 million derived from sponsored programs and research grants. Distinguished professorships, or endowments, are also limited to these colleges; the General Assembly voted to only fund STEM professorships last fall.
The three future buildings are part of the campus area master plan, a 10-year conceptual outline which the university has been working on since last year. At the business affairs committee meeting on Thursday, a representative from architecture firm Hanbury presented its recommendations for the future of UNCW’s footprint.
In these suggestions, the other colleges see some infrastructure attention; included in the plan is an addition to the Cultural Arts Building, where the arts programs live. Cameron Hall, home of the business school, is planned to expand. The campus area master plan also includes another unnamed academic building.
One college, however, is not currently tied to an expansion. Provost Winebrake told the trustees the university has seen declines in education students at the undergraduate level for 10 years, but especially in the last five. Elementary education, particularly, has taken a 4% hit.
“Getting into the teaching business right now in North Carolina is a challenge,” Winebrake said. “And so we have a lot of competition from schools that are charging $500 a year for tuition. There’s a lot of challenges, a lot of pressures, but we think we could be doing some different things.”
Winebrake noted this will be a challenge of the incoming dean of the Watson College of Education, Tracy Linderholm.
The largest area of intrigue when it comes to campus infrastructure is housing; less than five years after finishing four additional dorms, the university is already at capacity and nearing 18,000 students. It has already made plans to lease an off-campus housing facility, Plato’s Lofts, to alleviate the bed need.
The campus plan includes a new, 380-bed residence hall taking the place of Galloway Hall, the largest and oldest dorm on campus that was tagged for demolition last year. Also included is a residential village with 1,400 beds and two residence halls adding 1,000 beds. Another two sites have been identified for additional buildings.
Other notable recommendations in the plan are as follows:
- A welcome center
- A hotel and conference center
- Renovation to Trask Coliseum or new arena
- Expansion of Kenan Auditorium
- Soccer and tennis complexes
- New, 100,000-square-foot recreation facility
At the board of trustees’ next meeting in August, they will begin to refine their priorities for the campus plan, along with feasibility and timelines for the chosen recommendations.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com
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