N.C. State is a growing institution — no question about that. With enrollment topping 30,000 students and plans in place to increase that number to 40,000 in the near future, it’s no secret we’re aggressively expanding.

We see more and more new students coming onto campus each year. Centennial Campus is under constant construction — new classroom buildings and cranes dot the landscape. Even the older, sleepier corners of the University are being beautifully redefined by new facilities like the SAS building.

Growth is a good thing for the school. We are a university dedicated to serve North Carolina through research, engagement and the education of our citizens. The more students we can handle through our doors, the larger a positive impact we can have on our state as we take practical knowledge and apply it to our communities.

With this increased growth in student enrollment comes growth in the University staff — both in academics and in administrative roles. As we grow, we need to make sure that we don’t lose focus on our academic mission. We need to ensure that our growth is proportional with out priorities in mind. Any expansion must be done in academic and research areas before we take on new outside administrative duties.

We need to make sure we don’t “over administrate” our community.

A new report released by the News and Observer shows how in the past decade administrative positions and salaries have outstripped their academic counterparts in the UNC System. At NCSU, we’re ramping up to hire a top-level administrator to direct a newly created Campus Enterprises initiative.

UNC recently completed an efficiency study — funded by an outside donor — to take a look at how its administration could run more efficiently and grow at an efficient rate in the future. With our aggressive plans for growth, the University could use some of those same ideas.

We are a government run institution — and government enterprises don’t have the best reputation for efficiency. In fact, a former provost once declared, “we have no bottom line.”

We need to grow responsibly so that we don’t lose focus of our primary mission –- to educate. With an enrollment projected to grow to 40,000 students, we don’t have the wiggle room for largess and mistakes like the recent Mary Easley fiasco. It’s nearly impossible to expect perfection from a government institution but we can take the appropriate steps, as well as take a lesson from UNC, and plan for efficient growth.