Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

UNCP Chancellor Allen Meadors hopes to help the university increase its enrollment by attracting more diverse students. The current enrollment is 3,400, but the campus has been targeted by the UNC System as high growth and hopes to double its enrollment by 2008. UNCP was originally established as a normal school for Croatan (now Lumbee) Indians, and the current Indian enrollment is 21.9%. Meadors states that “UNCP wants to break away from the label of an Indian school” and asserts that “UNCP welcomes all students, including Indians, from all over the country.”

The university's recruitment and marketing efforts include spending $340,000 a year on marketing (compared to $3,000 a year in 1992); targeting high schools as far away as Atlanta, Virginia, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey; placing billboards in Winston-Salem and Charlotte; running theater ads in large cities to appeal to students seeking to transfer to a smaller school; and using e-mail, direct mail, and newspaper ads.