Dubois days: UNC Charlotte has grown enrollment by 35% and added eight doctoral programs during Chancellor Philip Dubois' decade on the job.

• Author: Mildenberg, David
• Position: NORTH CAROLINA HIGHER EDUCATION - Financial report

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University CEO Survival 101 is a course that Philip Dubois could teach with great credibility. The boss of UNC Charlotte will soon be the longest-serving chancellor in the 17-campus UNC System, holding the job since July 2005 as it added more students than any of its peers. (Steve Ballard, who has run East Carolina University since 2004, is stepping down in July.) Dubois, 65, may stay longer, citing a $200 million fundraising campaign that runs through 2019 and a $90 million science building to open in 2021.

Because nothing comes easy in a network historically dominated by older, revered campuses, Dubois has been busy. Over the last 30 years, UNC Charlotte added about 17,000 students. Its capital investments have topped $1.2 billion since 2000. It has 9.5 million square feet of space, including classrooms, parking decks, a business incubator and a football stadium. It all happened before a $1 billion light-rail line, scheduled to open next year, provides a 20-minute, two-buck ride connecting the university with downtown Charlotte, about 10 miles away.

The changes haven't diverted the university from its mission of offering a reasonably priced education to a diverse group of traditional and nontraditional students, Dubois says. The university accepted about 2,150 community-college transfers in 2014-15, compared with fewer than 400 at UNC Chapel Hill. Almost 40% of UNC Charlotte's student population is nonwhite, compared with about 30% at Chapel Hill and 27% at N.C. State University.

The diversity is partly due to an admissions policy encouraging transfer students from community colleges or other campuses, many of whom opt for less expensive ways to start their collegiate careers. While the addition of 22 doctoral programs since 2000 has bolstered enrollment of international students, 91% of UNC Charlotte undergraduates are North Carolina residents with more than 50% coming from the surrounding eight-county metro area.

Dubois credits UNC Charlotte's unusual growth to several key factors: the city's increased population and snappier national reputation; available land for expansion while many peers are landlocked; and an ability to attract more students without compromising academic standards. Enrollment gains have boosted revenue, making it easier to pay for new buildings. While the state in the last decade provided $50 million for a downtown Charlotte classroom tower and $77 million for an energy-research building...