Growing pains have officials at Alcorn State University confronting housing shortages for students, faculty and staff and looking for ways the school can foster positive economic relationships with nearby communities, its president said Tuesday.

Speaking to members of the Vicksburg Kiwanis, Dr. M. Christopher Brown II said ASU’s enrollment has grown by nearly 20 percent in the last two years, from about 3,600 students to 4,300.

Campus residences can house only 1,800 students, and many employees commute to the Lorman campus from Vicksburg, about 45 miles north of the school.

Brown hopes to see enrollment increase to 5,000 but said it will hold steady for now, until programs and infrastructure can be developed to match the growth.

“We have had to begin conversations with builders and investors,” Brown said.

The state does not provide public financing for dormitories and some of the school’s financial resources are reserved to pay off the debt from previous construction that Brown inherited when he was installed as ASU’s 18th president at the start of 2011.

Brown focused much of his talk on “the town-gown relationship,” the economics of universities and the towns in which they are situated.

Though ASU’s main 2,000 acre Lorman campus straddles Jefferson and Claiborne counties, it has satellite campuses in Adams and Warren counties and is committed to building its relationships in the “anchor cities of Natchez and Vicksburg,” he said.

ASU leaders have identified five key focuses: a clean, safe campus and surrounding area; the need for housing; promotion of commercial development; fostering economic opportunity; and fortifying public education.

Furthering those goals, ASU has purchased additional land just outside the boundaries of the campus and worked with state officials to rename “the stretch,” Mississippi 552 which leads to the campus from U.6. 61, after the school’s 15th and longest-serving president, Dr. Walter Washington. The road was officially rededicated in July 2011.

Alcorn officials have partnered with local developers and businesses to promote economic development, and under Brown’s tenure the school has re-established a bid process to procure many services, products and equipment after decades of continuing with previous suppliers.

The result has been increased opportunities for small, disadvantaged and local companies to win contracts, such as Waste Pro, a newly named ASU vendor with “huge” Mississippi roots, Brown said.

Brown also has met with public school superintendents or their assistants in all four neighboring counties, he said.

Alcorn maintains a significant satellite campus in Natchez, with residence halls, classrooms and libraries. Its presence in Vicksburg is smaller, and comprises rented space on Cherry Street between South and Harrison streets, and some classrooms at Hinds Community College’s Vicksburg campus on Mississippi 27.

Expanding its Vicksburg offerings remains a goal, Brown said. When additional space in Vicksburg is acquired, Alcorn will focus on increasing courses in business, hospitality management, criminal justice and, it is hoped, nursing and health care, said Brown.

Alcorn, the nation’s first historically black land-grant institution, was established in 1871 on 225 acres of land with eight faculty members and 179 students, all men.

The university is fully accredited with seven schools and degree programs in more than 50 areas including a nursing program. The facilities have increased from three historic buildings to approximately 80 buildings collectively valued at $71 million.