The Daily Camera’s front-page story of Sept. 15 was titled ” Enrollment up this year.” The 2018 University of Colorado freshman class has increased 2.3 percent over last year. Student enrollment on the Boulder campus is now 35,595, almost 15,000 more than the cap of 20,000 established by the state legislature in 1971.

I wonder if the increasing number of students is creating negative impacts in town that are not fully mitigated by CU or the city? I acknowledge that CU is an outstanding flagship institution with many remarkable faculty and numbers of serious students.

The university provides vitality and multiple educational opportunities for Boulder and its citizens. However, do these factors outweigh the impacts of increased traffic congestion, housing shortages, and excessive pressures on city fire and law enforcement? Is it possible to stabilize the future student population to the current numbers?

University officials struggle to offset the average freshman attrition or drop-out rate ranging from 14-20 percent per year with increased freshman admissions. Perhaps another approach might be to raise admission standards. Presumably there would be fewer drop-outs, thus negating the need to continually increase freshmen admissions.

The Boulder campus student head count continues to creep higher each year. As this happens I believe CU has a responsibility to help reduce its impacts on traffic congestion, neighborhood spillover on housing stock, and law enforcement issues of noise, trash and emergency calls.

As a former CU graduate student, professor and city council member, I am concerned about the unbridled growth of the city. I was preoccupied with the city’s population growth. Growth was not paying its full share of costs. The city had a growth management plan that attempted to contain population growth between 1 and 2 percent per year. The university as a state entity doesn’t need to adhere to city growth limitations or to follow city policies, such as height limits, flood plain regulations and solar setbacks.

Do Boulder residents who have lived here for several years see evidence that as the university grows bigger, is it improving as a partner in the community?

Are students bringing fewer cars to campus?

Is the campus using less water or energy per capita?

For every new head, is CU providing a new bed?

Are the frequent city fire department calls to the CU campus fully compensated? (CU has no fire department.)

Is the university providing incentives for an undergraduate student to graduate in four years instead of prolonging graduation six or seven years, as is too often the case now?

If the 1971 cap had been enforced we might not have had the 12 Nobel laureates, the many Fulbright awards, the 18 CU astronauts, perhaps not even the champion basketball and football teams.

Nevertheless, should an enrollment cap be revisited with the emphasis placed on an increase in quality of students instead of number of students? Would 40,000 or 50,000 students make it a better institution? (Is South Campus proposed to accommodate the coming bulge of future students?) Would more students beyond the current 35,000-person head count enrich the community somehow? Should the expected future student population be encouraged to consider the Colorado Springs and Denver campuses, or other fine state colleges in Gunnison, Durango and Grand Junction?

The University of Colorado is aware the student demand may not continue. As tuition costs rise many small liberal arts colleges are facing decreasing enrollments. To counter this trend there are eight colleges in the United States, including Antioch, that are tuition free. Some well-endowed universities like Stanford, Duke and Harvard have reduced or no tuition for students from families of modest income.

With dwindling state support, CU seems inclined to boost enrollment (and tuition) to sustain its revenue. But by offering telecommuting, online course work, automated, higher-quality admission standards, and online grading, some increases in campus residents may be avoided, including the adverse community infrastructure impacts.

Large student populations at Texas A&M (68,825), University of Florida (52,300), and Ohio State University (52,517) do not guarantee an increase in academic performance.

I believe bigger is not a guarantee of better.

Spense Havlick is a former member of the Camera Editorial Advisory Board and former city council member.