Livingstone College students are living in furnished apartments in Concord and Kannapolis this fall after a record enrollment surge overwhelmed the Salisbury campus.
The private historically Black college enrolled its largest freshman class in nearly 150 years, first reported by WBTV on Monday, Oct. 5. WBTV reported 505 freshmen enrolled this fall, up from 400 in fall 2025. QCity Metro reported a higher figure of 575 first-year students in a Sept. 11 article; the difference may reflect how each outlet counted the cohort.
The growth outstripped campus housing. About 100 students landed on a waiting list, and the college arranged beds across the region.
Livingstone College President Anthony J. Davis told WBTV the college secured 70 beds at a Hampton Inn in Salisbury. Students who still needed housing were placed in fully furnished apartments along the I-85 corridor in Concord and Kannapolis at no extra cost. Davis also told QCity Metro in September that three Salisbury hotels were filled to capacity and one was converted into a Livingstone residence hall for the entire fall semester.
"We have students as far south of I-85 corridor in Concord. We have students in Kannapolis and Concord at no additional expense in fully furnished apartments," Davis told WBTV.
The college's total enrollment has nearly doubled in four years, growing from 713 students to more than 1,300, according to QCity Metro. Davis said the school grew about 70% over that span. He traveled to 27 cities over 12 weeks in the prior year to recruit students and attributed part of the HBCU enrollment boom to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling banning race-based admissions at colleges and universities.
The incoming freshman class arrived with a 3.35 grade point average, the highest in the school's 147-year history, according to QCity Metro.
Freshman Devin Adams, a math major who applied to 30 colleges and was accepted by all of them, chose Livingstone. Adams told WBTV the campus felt like family from his first visit. Transfer student Lavin Savage left a non-HBCU in Florida for Livingstone, where he plays basketball and wants to become a sports journalist.
Davis said he is talking with county partners about how local governments can help sustain the growth, citing the college's economic impact on the region. No response from Concord city officials or Cabarrus County regarding the student housing influx was available as of publication.
The college's board has approved plans for multiple new residence halls, Davis told WBTV, though he declined to share a timeline or cost.
The college traces its roots to Concord, where it was founded in 1879 as Zion Wesley Institute before moving to Salisbury in 1882.
