North Carolina Central University Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon says the Durham school will prioritize more housing and more online options in order to reach its “next step” of 10,000 students.
“Students want to come but it’s also a double-edged sword,” the chancellor said during an event hosted by The Assembly on Wednesday. “We don’t have housing!” Her remarks were part of the first event in The Assembly’s Newsmakers Series, which focused on the future of higher education and also included RTI CEO Tim Gabel and UNC system president Peter Hans.
The HBCU’s enrollment grew by 13.5 percent in the past year, making it the fastest growing school of the 17 UNC system campuses. That brought the school up to about 8,000 enrolled students. The campus is, per Dixon, “busting at the seams.”
Indeed, five students were arrested on campus during an April rally about the lack of housing and poor conditions in the existing dorms.
“We are not immune to the broader national housing crisis, which is affecting the general public and college campuses across the country—particularly those experiencing growth, like ours,” Dixon said in a message after the rally.
On Wednesday, Dixon called the university “landlocked” in Durham, noting its adjacency to the historic Hayti neighborhood, but said that she was eyeing some vacant buildings closer to downtown for potential housing.
“We want to make sure that we have a campus where our students love where they live and learn, and part of that is living in Durham, living in the Bull City, living in the Triangle,” said Dixon.
“How big do you want NC Central to be?” asked Kyle Villemain, founder of The Assembly, which owns the INDY.
“I don’t know, we’ll see. We’ll see what Project Kitty Hawk can do for us,” Dixon said, namedropping the UNC system’s online degree experiment. “We have no issues with capacity online.”
The housing shortage is a years-old issue for NCCU, leaving some students without on-campus options in a pricey Triangle housing market.
One year into the job, Dixon said that she is trying to take a “preventative maintenance” approach to ongoing issues.
“It’s easy to put a Band-Aid on things, and especially if you’re sitting back and not advocating for what it is that you truly need,” said Dixon, adding that she was committed to “making sure that NCCU is at the table” for research opportunities, partnerships, mentorships, and internships.
“Karrie Dixon will come find you,” she told any prospective partners who may have been listening.
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].