This story was produced and edited with Ashley Velazquez
Since the founding of Western Carolina University in 1899, the campus has tremendously changed throughout the decades.
The Scott and Walker dorms are big players in the university’s plans. Photo by Jake Myers.
What started as a Teaching Academy with barely 350 students, today has over 11,500 students that make-up Western Carolina University. This ranges from graduate, undergraduate, students on the Biltmore Park campus, and the various online programs offered to students.
“Total enrollment has increased every year that has helped us have steady and continuous growth,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Enrollment, Phil Cauley.
There has been a lot of change on campus that has involved tearing down and rebuilding the campus to get where we are now.
“The enrollment planning committee is constantly discussing what is the right size is and how do we preserve while bringing in the new,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor for Campus Services, Keith Corzine.
With the growth of the university, living on campus will get harder especially for students in higher level classes. When we talked with students, some see the benefits of living on campus but they also have some interesting experiences in various dorms. See what some of them told us.
Routine maintenance is done on all the residence halls and other facilities on campus to keep them update and meet certain health and safety standards. Routine maintenance is included but not limited too; housekeeping, a daily level and more in-depth level on a monthly, semi-annual, or annual basis; work orders for plumbing issues, electrical related issues, fire safety systems, and all electronic and hardware related issues according to Corzine.
“Almost anything related to a facility requires routine or responsive maintenance of some type,” said Corzine. “Given the age of a particular facility, the systems mentioned above will eventually need more than routine maintenance can prove.”
There are around 4,500 students that are housed on campus in 14 residence halls. The new freshman residence hall, Levern Hamlin Allen Hall, will open in early August that will house around 614 students. This building will replace the traditional old-style Walker and Scott residence halls in 2020. In the fall, Walker Hall will house students in super singles which is a double room sold as a private room according to Corzine. In addition, Scott Hall will remain the same old-style resident hall that it has been for over 10 years.
In addition, the Buchannan Residence Hall will probably be the next building to get renovated and brought up to code described Corzine.
“We always get asked questions about freshman and where we will house everyone, but students only see a small picture and not the complexity of it all. We are more concerned with not just how many beds are available but is there enough facility to hold and accommodate everyone else,” said Corzine. “We are not trying to house 11 thousand students. No campus does.”
The Office for Undergraduate Admissions and Residential Living are making positive efforts to make sure that there is enough room to accommodate everyone. As Corzine said the first-year and transfer applications deadline was moved to an earlier date because high school students are applying to five to eight other colleges.
“We do this so that students who are interested will go ahead and apply early instead of waiting and applying to so many other schools,” said Cauley.
The students enrolling to the university need to reply by May 1st. “Just because you applied does not mean that you are coming and a card in the mail saying your accepted does not mean that you will attend our university,” explained Corzine. These efforts help regulate the number of people being accepted.
During the time that David Belcher was Chancellor through 2012-2017, enrollment growth averaged around 250 in total headcount according to Cauley.
This allows us to control our growth, so we are not exploding with too many students at one time. In addition, the NC promise was introduced for the first time in the fall of 2018 that lowered the tuition for undergraduate students to $500 per semester for NC residents.
“This was the first time going above the norm because it had to show what the NC promise would do and we are still navigating the effects that it will have,” explained Cauley.
Both Cauley and Corzine are WCU Alumni for over 30 years.
“It has been a great experience to attend school here and be fortunate enough to work for such a great institution for so long,” said Corzine. At one time the campus did not look anything like it does now. “There has been a major renovation to get the campus we see now. 30 years ago, there was not a highway going in at the entrance of campus, it used to be just land and that is why a lot of the buildings are not facing towards the entrance,” said Cauley.
The campus plans to continue to be strategic and smart about our decisions in growing the university explained Corzine.
