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GREENSBORO — UNCG’s board of trustees took a look into the school’s future at its meeting Monday afternoon — and what members saw was staggering growth.

With a record-breaking fall enrollment projected at nearly 23,000, the school is looking to bring more students on campus and preserve what Chancellor Linda Brady called its “residential character.”

“In 1960, UNCG housed 76 percent of our students on campus,” Brady told the board before unveiling the school’s strategic housing plan. “By 2008, this figure had dropped to 25 percent.”

The school projects that slightly more than 4,000 students will live on campus this school year. About 2,000 of those will be freshmen.

Brady said about 80 percent of freshmen still live on campus in their first year — but that’s not enough for school officials. Numerous studies and the school’s own experience show retention and graduation rates are higher for students living on campus throughout their college careers.

With that in mind, the school’s housing plan projects out to 2020, looking at student needs that include doubling the amount of housing now available — both on campus and in off-campus student neighborhoods — that could be built through public/private partnerships.

Carol Disque, vice chancellor for student affairs, said UNCG is expected to have more than 16,000 undergraduate students by 2020. To reach its goal of housing half those students on campus, the school will need more than 8,000 new beds.

The question: Where to put them? Already using most of its 200 acres and hemmed in by development, the school has struggled with that question for years.

Modernizing its many older dorms has been a challenge. Campuswide, the buildings have about $128 million in deferred maintenance.

While most students say they prefer apartment and suite-style housing, such as the Spring Garden Apartments dorm built in 2006, most of UNCG’s dorms are still double rooms with group bathrooms down the hall.

Last semester, a plan was floated to tear down the campus’ Quad buildings — some of its oldest dormitories — and replace them with more modern dorms with similar architecture. The plan was met with protests from students and area preservationists.

The board didn’t address the Quad question Monday, saying a recommendation will have to wait until its September session. But there was talk about expanding off-campus.

“We’re assuming UNCG cannot reach that student target on the traditional campus footprint,” Disque said. “If UNCG commits to this strategic housing plan, we’re going to see a striking increase in capacity in the core campus and in new UNCG residential neighborhoods.”

Disque said the school has identified neighborhoods to its west and south into which it could expand housing. That housing could look something like the many neighborhood apartments just off N.C. A&T’s campus, privately owned but with close ties to the university.

The strategic plan’s projections may create more questions than answers so far, with more details to come in the next few months. But Brady said it’s a good starting point for a discussion the campus is going to have to have sooner than later.

“The planning process has encouraged us to look beyond the next two years,” she said.

“And understand the enrollment growth that will hit this university between now and 2020.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com