Chancellor Randy Woodson said Wednesday that it’s unlikely that the UNC Board of Governors will address a proposal to increase the cap limiting the number of out-of-state freshman for some of its universities any time soon.

The News & Observer recently reported recently that a number of historically minority schools within the UNC-System are dealing with a decline in enrollment. As a result, some members of the BOG proposed to raise the 18 percent cap on incoming out-of-state students.

“There was not a lot of concern about it from the board,” said Woodson. “They didn’t act on it, they actually tabled it.” 

According to Woodson, some people believe the aforementioned schools could benefit from opening their campuses to more out-of-state-applicants due to the lack of sufficient enrollment. Woodson also said a lack of enrollment doesn’t imply the schools are struggling to provide quality education.

“They are very strong institutions, it’s just that they’ve seen a drop in enrollment in recent years,” Woodson said.

Woodson said there was no proposal to increase the cap for other UNC-System schools.

“For all the other universities at 18 percent, there’s no current proposal on the table to change that,” Woodson said. “I personally think the cap of 18 percent is about the right number.”

According to Woodson, the only benefit of increasing the cap for struggling universities is the projected increase of enrollment the proposal has the potential to bring.

“[For] students that pay out-of-state tuition-—that pay a higher tuition to come to N.C. State—the money doesn’t stay at our university,” Woodson said. “It off-sets the appropriations from the state of North Carolina.”

As of fall 2012, the University has the highest undergraduate enrollment, 24,833 students, according to the UNC-System facts and figures web page. According to Woodson, the percent of out-of-state students who enrolled this fall is about 17 percent.

Woodson said that out-of-state students are important and bring a lot to the University even though their enrollment rates monitored.

“Having out-of-state students is important because it adds to the diversity of our campus in terms of geographic diversity, it enhances the environment here and it enhances our reputation to have students from all over that want to be at N.C. State,” Woodson said.

On the other hand, students such as Owen Emery, a junior in civil engineering from New Haven, Conn., come to N.C. State for its reputation and a change of pace.

“When I decided I wanted to be an engineer, [N.C. State] was kind of one of the top choices for engineering schools,” Emery said. 

Emery was first introduced to N.C. State his junior year of high school when he attended an engineering summer camp on campus. 

Emery also said he likes the instructors at N.C. State.

 “I enjoy the [instructors], they’re really willing to help out whenever you need them,” Emery said. “I feel that…I’ll be well prepared for whatever I have to do later in life with what they’ve taught me here.” 

Woodson said that he wants out-of-state-students to be aware of and thinking about N.C. State as a potential university.

“We have one of the best returns on investment in the country and best buy, we’re consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally for the value of our higher education,” Woodson said. “We just need to get the word out.”