For much of the decade, N.C. Central University flung its doors wide open, welcoming scores of new students - prompted by a UNC system mandate to increase enrollment.

Problem was, those students weren't all ready for college. Plenty dropped out, leaving NCCU with a stain on its graduation rate data. From 2004 to 2008, just 18 percent of NCCU students graduated within four years. About 38 percent managed in five years, and about half did it in six years.

Now, university leaders are re-making the undergraduate academic experience, shifting from the enrollment model from quantity to quality. They're slowing the enrollment growth, a move necessary in part because the campus infrastructure can't withstand continued expansion, and looking for ways to admit better students.

N.C. Central University plans to put 300 of its upperclassmen up in a Durham hotel this fall due to overcrowding.

The students will likely live at least for one semester in the Millennium Hotel near Morreene Road, about 10 minutes from campus.

The reason: The university is projecting far more new freshmen this fall than previously anticipated, a result, perhaps of the weak economy and the desire for more students to seek education.

Here's the story.