By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- N.C. Central University wants to grow -- but doesn't have the room for more students.

"We simply do not have enough space on this campus," said Kevin Rome, the university's vice chancellor for student affairs, at a meeting of NCCU's Board of Trustees on Tuesday. "We only have the space we have, and it's not enough."

The answer, officials say, is to grow those segments of the student population that you don't need more housing for.

The university consequently wants to make a concerted effort to increase the number of both distance education and graduate students along with community college transfers.

"They all tend not to place as much stress on your residence halls, and classrooms," said Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms. "You can accommodate that growth without having to build if you focus on those three areas."

That focus also can help with NCCU's graduation rate. That four-year rate has hovered around 18 percent.

Community college transfer students, in particular, tend to have a higher graduation rate and "our major emphasis will be on transfers from community colleges," Nelms said.

NCCU now has 432 transfer students, an increase of more than 40 percent over the past decade, but still a fairly low number, officials said. Distance education students also have increased significantly -- from 163 to 730 -- but officials said there's still much more room for expansion.

"We need to grow in distance education," Nelms said. "We have a finite number of residence halls on campus, but with online education, we can get students anywhere in the world."

Glenn Adams, chairman of the university's Board of Trustees, warned that the window for increasing NCCU's online profile may be closing. "We need to get there before the rest get in," he said, referring to for-profit online schools such as the University of Phoenix. "We need to be on the cutting edge of online and distance education."

The problem, though, is that the university needs more courses and faculty available online, Nelms said.

"We have to adapt our courses to online delivery, and have faculty who can work with the newest technology," he said. "We're not there with the technology at all. We're looking to do that. It's on everyone's radar screen."

But even with nontraditional growth, NCCU has to build more facilities on campus, officials said.

"Our student union is not comparable to any other in the system," Rome said, noting that it was built when the university -- which now enrolls more than 8,500 students -- only had 2,500. "Right now we don't even have an auditorium on campus where we can gather all our students at the same time. That's sad."

Right now, Rome asked rhetorically, "where do students who don't live on campus go when they are between classes?"

Nelms answered quickly: "To their cars," he said.

"If we're serious in helping low-wealth students succeed," the chancellor added, "we must give them the same facilities that other campuses have. I don't need anything special, but if you give me the same facilities as at other campuses, just imagine what we could do with more support."