The Flagstaff mountain campus student body includes approximately 17,500 students. With triple rooms becoming a fixture on campus and a mandatory housing lottery in place for the fall 2011 term, the housing situation is crowded, and tuition rates often increase for incoming students. Due to high demand, some students have had difficulty getting the classes they want or require to graduate. The question on some people’s minds is how NAU will accommodate an increase of 7,500 students — even if it is spread over 10 years.

David Bousquet, vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, said the increase would happen steadily over time.

“Enrollment would gradually increase over the next 10 years,” Bousquet said. “This would be due to a gradual increase in the size of the freshman and transfer classes and an increase in the number of students retained.”

Bousquet said he was optimistic financial aid was not likely to be adversely affected by student expansion.

“At present, the university sets aside 17 percent of tuition dollars for financial aid,” Bousquet said. “In recent years, that amount has increased from 8 percent to 17 percent of tuition dollars. The university has significantly increased the amount of funding available for financial aid. The success of that strategy is reflected in the increase in enrollment.”

Bousquet said some changes would have to be made to allow for the student expansion.

“To accommodate enrollment growth will require better classroom utilization,” Bousquet said. “It will also require offering more sections of classes and perhaps more classrooms. Plans are in place to renovate some amount of existing classroom space, with the new Health and Learning Center adding 27 classrooms to the existing inventory.”

Rich Bowen, an NAU employee with Capital Services, said the future expansion is newly mandated by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) to NAU.

“It’s relatively new; it’s a new mandate by [ABOR],” Bowen said. “I know the work is ongoing to determine [what] the cost and resource needs will be to make this happen.”

Bowen said he thinks NAU will be doing this smartly.

“We want to make sure that when this growth occurs, it will be smart growth — that we will be ahead of the curve, providing appropriate housing, both on campus and encouraging appropriate development off campus,” Bowen said.

The growth Bowen referred to is prominently featured in the Flagstaff Campus 2010 Master Plan executive summary, available at nau.edu. According to this plan, the Flagstaff campus is growing faster than anticipated.

“The Arizona Board of Regents 2020 Vision set a goal for Northern Arizona University enrollment to increase to 35,000 total students statewide, which included 18,500 students on the Flagstaff campus,” the plan states. “With 2020 still 10 years away, the university has grown to over 16,000 students on the Flagstaff campus and is projecting continued growth. In 2010 the Board updated enrollment projections to 25,000 students on the Flagstaff campus by 2020 or soon after.”

The plan also lists future projects that will be undertaken in the next few years.

“The transit spine will also be part of the first phase implementation, along with a major parking garage on San Francisco — after demolition of the Fronske Health Center,” the plan states. “New housing on campus, provided by a private developer, will initially add 576 beds in apartment-type housing on the east side of San Francisco, and an additional 500 beds in suite-type units on the proposed pedway bridge to the south campus.”

Other major undertakings that will be completed by 2020 include a new University Administation building located on the Tinsley parking lot and two more Academic Research buildings to accompany the current Academic Research and Development structure.