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UNCP enrollment
set records for fourth consecutive year
The University
of North Carolina at Pembroke has set new enrollment records for the
fourth straight year, Chancellor Allen C. Meadors announced to the Board
of Trustees during their quarterly meeting on September 5.
As Chancellor Meadors
spoke Friday afternoon, students were moving into the University's new
213-bed residence hall. One hundred and ninety-four students moved into
the privately-financed facility from two motels in Lumberton where they
had been temporarily housed since August 23 because of rain delays.
Total enrollment
is 4,754 up 7.3 percent from last year and up 58 percent from 1999.
Freshmen enrollment set a new record of 809 and transfer student set
another record at 460.
Enrollment numbers
for fall 2003 will not become official for another week but will not
vary much from Friday's estimates, Chancellor Meadors said.
The number of Native
Americans enrolled at UNCP set an all-time record of 957. African American
student enrollment also set a record with 1,019.
"Native American
enrollment is up 39 percent in four years despite four percent drop
in Native American high school graduates," Chancellor Meadors said.
"This is nothing short of amazing and miraculous."
Chancellor Meadors
said the biggest single change in the character of the University is
the number of students living on campus, which has increased by 97 percent
in four years.
"A university
is truly a good neighbor," Chancellor Meadors said. "Besides
bringing in more than 700 new residents to our community, we have 200
more employees now than we had in 1999."
There are currently
construction projects, valued at $41 million, underway at UNCP, Chancellor
Meadors said. The owners of the new residence hall have agreed to construct
two more buildings with 144 new beds for next year.
"Your university
has done some incredible things over the past four years, and you haven't
seen anything yet," Chancellor Meadors said.
In other business,
the Board of Trustees authorized the University to negotiate the purchase
of land across 3rd Street in front of the main entrance.
Two faculty hiring
policies were amended and forwarded to the UNC Board of Governors for
their approval. New tenure-track faculty will have two-year contracts
instead of one-year deals, and some faculty may be granted tenure immediately
when it is merited.
Both new policies
put UNCP in a better position to attract talented faculty and academic
administrators.
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