The inaugural cohort of the University of North Carolina Asheville’s new master’s program in environmental resilience arrived on campus at a fraught and fortuitous moment.
The university’s announcement of the program last April came amid growing uproar over its plan to develop 45 acres of wooded campus. By the time classes began in August, the school had unveiled a plan centered on a 5,000-seat soccer stadium, then hit the brakes after a tidal wave of criticism.
Nine of the cohort’s 10 students got their undergraduate degrees from UNCA, and they were well aware of the tension around the woods. Willow McNeil, who majored in biology at UNCA, said she got flack from some community activists, who asked why she would return to a school poised to raze one of the city’s largest swaths of urban forest. Angie Herbert, who had been a geoscience undergrad, felt conflicted enough that she contemplated a similar program at Warren Wilson College — then had a revelation while attending an on-campus pro-woods protest.
“I had just had all of these positive memories coming back about being an undergraduate on campus,” Herbert said. “No matter what happens, I still wanted to come back and make my voice heard.”
They also thought the debate could present an opportunity. That sentiment was shared by the program’s director, Kathleen Lawlor, an associate professor of economics, who suggested in August that the students spend their semester delving into the environmental costs and possibilities of campus development. Earlier this month, the cohort released the results of its research in presentations in-person and online.
Their report includes the first published surveys of student and faculty sentiment on campus development since the stadium proposal; a cost-benefit analysis delving into both the financial and ecological aspects of the plan; and low- and medium-intensity development concepts for UNCA properties including both the woods and a large area of vacant land across Broadway Street.
“I’m so proud of the work my students did on this project — and not just because their analysis was thorough, creative, and artfully presented, but because of the way they worked together as a team, pushing each other to do their best work and co-creating a vision for the future,” Lawlor said in an email.
Members of the cohort said the surveys, along with focus group sessions, revealed a disconnect between UNCA’s administration and its students and faculty. Of the more than 100 students who responded to the survey, just one listed a soccer stadium as a top-three preference for campus spending; academic buildings, outdoor recreation, student housing and dining options topped the list. Faculty results were similar, with four of the 65 surveyed ranking the stadium as a top priority while the largest portions supported outdoor recreation, student and employee housing and childcare facilities.
Chancellor looks for ways to bolster bottom line
UNCA wants to grow its enrollment by about a third, to 4,000 students, by 2030. Officials including Chancellor Kimberly van Noort have emphasized that the school needs to develop the woods and other Millennial Campus properties, which allow for revenue-generating public-private partnerships, in ways that attract more students and bolster its bottom line. But the environmental resilience students found that the school’s messaging has left some current students feeling left behind, especially those who came to UNCA from outside the region for the natural beauty on and surrounding campus. (Fewer than one-fifth of the student survey respondents were from western North Carolina, and about a quarter were from other states.)
“From the students’ side, they were saying that it felt like the university was making these decisions in consideration of a future student body rather than considering the wants and values of the students they already have,” McNeil said. “The university really needs to play to its current strengths rather than think of what it can add to attract other students.”
Their analysis acknowledges that a stadium would bring benefits, including some low-wage jobs, potential growth for Asheville City Soccer Club, and, eventually, millions of dollars in rent income for UNCA. But they stack those against costs such as the loss of the ecosystem services the woods provide, including carbon sequestration and runoff avoidance estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The students do not propose leaving the woods entirely untouched. Their ideas include an outdoor classroom or amphitheater, a sculpture garden, an outdoor gear center and a coffee shop on the edge of the forest — all lower-stakes concepts that they believe would benefit current and future students and be a boon for the school’s reputation. Herbert said students were eager for smaller-scale recreation options on campus, such as a climbing wall or ropes course, which could find a home in the woods.
Ideas for other Millenial Campus properties offered
Many of their ideas, though, are centered on other Millennial Campus properties, especially the so-called Zillicoa property nestled between Broadway and Zillicoa Street. That property, which is already cleared and partially graded, could be used for student housing, a community center and a childcare facility; they also suggested faculty housing on a smaller piece of university property on WT Weaver Boulevard. All of these, they proposed, could be built with climate-resilient features such as green roofs and battery-powered microgrids.
“Our main goal was just to highlight the fact that there’s other opportunities, there are other locations,” said Amelia Racky, another of the students in the cohort. “Keeping good relations with the community, with the students, with the faculty is really top priority for a university that is trying to build its status and trying to come up from financial difficulties.”
Their proposals incorporated ideas from a community workshop in August. Its organizer, architect Scott Burroughs, spoke to the class in November and later reviewed their presentation. He said he was impressed by the work but despaired that “10 students walking around, surveying, putting out a few fliers” had seemingly solicited more feedback on the issue than UNCA has.
“This is great work,” said Burroughs, who filed this month to run for a City Council seat in 2026, “but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what the university should be doing as far as engagement.”
The environmental resilience students may be in an advantageous position to get UNCA to listen to its findings. Though the school has historically been focused on undergraduates, it has shown an interest in growing its graduate offerings — a factor that, like development, it hopes will spark growth. The success of this program could be key to getting traction for others. Now, its first cohort has thrown itself into the fray on one of the university’s most heated issues.
“I think a lot of us were really maybe a little scared to speak our minds at the beginning of the semester, and I’ve noticed that around students as well — wanting to be more anonymous with their opinions because they’re afraid of backlash from the university,” Herbert said. “But as the semester went along, we felt a lot more confident in our work and that this would be helpful to the university — maybe doing a little bit of the Millennial Campus (Development) Commission’s job for them.”
Development Commission to evaluate ideas, UNCA says
That commission, which the university announced in August it would create to collect and evaluate development ideas, has yet to meet or have its membership announced; UNCA spokesperson Eden Bloss said in an email this week that the school was finalizing the commission and would “have more to share in early January.”
The school does have eyes on the students’ work. Representatives from van Noort’s office attended the in-person presentation, the students said, and Bloss said the commission will evaluate their ideas.
For all the conflict around the woods proposal, McNeil said the students’ very presence is proof that much of what UNCA does well is working.
“We are proof of the university’s strengths and of what keeps people coming back to UNC Asheville,” she said. “We came back for this really relevant and important topic of environmental resilience because of a school that we had great experiences at.”
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