Opinion ID: 2178314
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Ceiling on Enrollment

Text: American University's 1989 Campus Plan provided that enrollment at the Main and Tenley Campuses would not exceed 11,233 students for the duration of the Plan. This ceiling was expressed in an exhibit to the Plan as the sum of two components: a base headcount of 10,381 students plus a cap of approximately 8 percent, or 852 students, to allow for fluctuations in enrollment trends, retention rates and program offerings. The ceiling in the 1989 Plan covered all students on campus, including students at the University's law school. After the 1989 Plan was approved, however, the University moved its law school to a commercially-zoned site three blocks from the Main Campus. When the University submitted its 2000 Campus Plan, the Zoning Commission concluded that the relocation of the law school necessitated an adjustment of the ceiling in the Plan on student enrollment. Ultimately, the Commission approved the 2000 Campus Plan on the condition that student enrollment over the life of the plan not exceed 10,600 students. This new ceiling is lower than the former ceiling of 11,233 students because the Commission found that law students not enrolled at the Main Campus would continue to use it for some activities and have a corresponding impact on traffic and parking in the vicinity. Although petitioners argued for an even lower ceiling on enrollment when they appeared before the Commission, in this court they do not challenge the ceiling that the Commission adopted. Petitioners object only to the Commission's decision not to express the ceiling in the 2000 Plan the same way as it was expressed in the 1989 Planas a bifurcated number incorporating a base headcount and an allowance for upward fluctuation. Petitioners argue that the clear result of this decision is that the normal, ongoing allowed total student population level will be increasedfrom the base level of 10,381 in the 1989 plan, to 10,600, in the new plan. Since the Commission found that the ceiling should be revised downward from the 1989 Plan, petitioners argue that the Commission's conclusion does not flow rationally from its findings. We are not persuaded by petitioners' argument. The proper comparison is with the ceiling of 11,233 students in the 1989 Plan, not with a mere component of that ceiling. The 1989 Plan did not establish the base headcount of 10,381 students as a norm to which the University was required to adhere. Rather, the 1989 Plan allowed the University to exceed that base count by up to 8 percent in its discretion. The only true limitation in the 1989 Plan was that the University could not enroll more than the total figure. For the 2000 Plan, that not-to-be-exceeded enrollment figure has been lowered by 633 students. That the Commission decided not to express the new, lower figure in the bifurcated manner of the 1989 Plan makes no material difference. The Commission's decision is rationally related to its findings and neither arbitrary, capricious, nor contrary to law. We affirm it.