Things are looking up at North Carolina Central University — literally.
For the second year in a row, the historically Black university in Durham leads all 16 of the state’s public universities in enrollment growth, with an increase of 7.7% this fall alone. The university’s total enrollment of 8,579 includes 1,753 first-year students, accounting for the largest freshman class in the school’s 114-year history.
The numbers are a notable improvement for NC Central, which in recent years was identified as one of a handful of schools in the UNC System that were “most impacted by changing enrollment patterns.” The university’s enrollment dipped from 2018 to 2019, then grew only slightly before dropping again between 2020 and 2022, and finally rebounding last fall…