Clemson University - Taps Yearbook (Clemson, SC)

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Administration

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before the work began

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President Edwards Change and expansion are familiar at Clemson University. Anyone who knows our campus can tell you how its skyhne has dramatically changed and how enroll- ment has grown in the past 10 years. This year we have been witnesses to yet another major period of change and expansion. With six major construction projects under way and an enrollment on campus of 9.461 students, we ' ve all had to become accustomed to some new ideas-including changes in parking and traffic patterns. This time in our University ' s Hfe, however, will not be remembered solely because of changes on campus and our personal adjustments to those changes. More significantly, I believe, this year will be remembered because it signals the fulfillment of some important goals we set several years ago. Among these goals was a determination to focus our educational programs on the needs of people; to ded- icate ourselves to quaUty, not quantity; and to imple- ment a physical and human resources expansion that would complement an on-campus enrollment of 10,000 by 1975. As you reflect on the events of this year, I think you will understand why I believe we are entering a phase of fulfillment in the University ' s history. Last fall when our on-campus enrollment passed the 9,000 mark, many people wondered out loud if our de- sire to limit enrollment to 10,000 would be forgotten. Emphatically, it will not be forgotten. We still believe that we can maximize quahty only by hmiting enrollment to the number we feel we can handle in support services-physical and otherwise. There are no advantages to growing larger than 10,000 and there are many disad- vantages. No one institution can be all things to all people. One of the worst things that can happen to a University which becomes big in numbers is that it becomes impersonal. That will not happen during my tenure at Clemson; to de-humanize this campus would be a tragedy. You may ask how we propose to limit our enrollment if demand for an education at Clemson continues to grow. Certainly it is not our desire to turn away quahfied students in our state. There are several factors which we beheve will help us meet this situation. First, it has become obvious that college enrollments, nation-wide, have peaked. The post-war baby-boom students are completing their educations now. Even more significant is that the State of South Carolina through the General Assembly is not only developing basic poHcy, but is also providing a system of post -secondary education designed to meet the needs of all the people in our state. One aspect of this design is career-oriented technical education center and community colleges which are satis- fying the educational requirements of an increasing number of South Carolinians.