Looking ahead to commencement exercises taking place in early May and back from heart surgery earlier this year, University of North Carolina Wilmington Chancellor Jose Sartarelli took a few minutes recently to reflect on progress this year toward several of his goals.

Growth
Sartarelli said that UNCW has grown 28 percent since 2009, making it, he said, the fastest-growing campus in the UNC system today. He added, however, that the goal is growth with quality.

“We have not given up on getting the very best students,” he said, noting that the average SAT score for students entering in the fall of 2017 was 1248 (based on a total of 1600). “We are increasingly selective.”

Enrollment for the 2017-18 academic year was 16,487, according to the university’s website. Of those, 14,502 were undergraduate students.

Online education
One of Sartarelli’s goals, articulated from the beginning of his tenure as chancellor, was to increase certain categories of students at UNCW – such as military personnel and veterans – and to expand UNCW’s online offerings, which can, incidentally, help military personnel pursue a college education.

Sartarelli pointed to indications that those efforts are succeeding. UNCW now has more than 2,500 online students, and was recently ranked seventh in the country for Best Online Bachelor’s Programs by U.S. News, tied with Pennsylvania State University. About 1,400 of those online students are pursuing a bachelor's degree in nursing, he said. and are in close touch with their instructors and program officials.

“Penn State has been an online offerer for many years; to be tied with Penn State is very special,” Sartarelli said. “We are doing a good job of engaging our [online] students on a daily basis.”
 
Rankings
The online bachelor’s degree area was not the only noteworthy ranking Sartarelli touted. For example, its U.S. News rank among Best Regional Universities in the South has risen from 16th to 14th, and ranks sixth when only public universities in the South are considered.

Key scholarships
Another measure of a university’s quality is in how well its students and faculty members compete for prestigious scholarships. The chancellor cited some numbers for this academic year:

• 10 Gilman Scholarships, which are awarded to students with limited financial needs to allow them to study or intern abroad;
• 4 NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Hollings Scholarships, which provide financial aid for two academic years plus a paid summer internship for students who are working in scientific fields related to the work of NOAA;
• 2 student and 3 faculty member Fulbright Scholarships for international educational exchange.

New programs
New programs, the chancellor said, are the lifeblood of a university. “They are like new products,” he said.

Sartarelli expects the UNC Board of Governors to approve a new undergraduate program in coastal engineering sometime this summer. Several other new degree programs are in development, he said, mentioning three new Ph.D. programs the university is hoping to pursue: marine science, pharmaceutical studies, and possibly, instructional technology.

Capital projects
With growth in its student population comes the need for a university to increase and enhance its facilities. Sartarelli said that there is “significant” infrastructure development underway on the UNCW campus, and he is working to secure funding for more.

“We are in the process of getting approval from the Board of Governors for three new residence halls – that will be 1,800 new beds – and a new parking deck and most likely another dining hall,” he said, explaining that the goal is to have 30-40 percent of undergraduates living on campus. Currently, all freshmen are required to live on campus, and a number of upper-class students choose to do so as well.
 
“We’re also working to get funding for a new science building and library extension or new library,” Sartarelli added, explaining that Randall Library was last renovated in 1987. “At that time we had 5,000 students. We’ve grown to three times that and the library is still the same.”