Official figures confirm freshmen enrollment largest ever
Contact: Rene Abadie
9/12/06
HAMMOND – New freshmen at Southeastern Louisiana University totaled 2,911 students, the largest freshman class ever enrolled at the university, Southeastern officials announced.
According to official university figures released after the 14th class day, the number represents a near-18 percent increase over last year’s new freshmen.
The university’s overall enrollment of 15,118 is below last year’s post-Katrina figure of 16,068 when Southeastern enrolled more than 1,600 New Orleans area students displaced by the storm.
“We anticipated a strong freshman class, based on the unusually high number of inquiries and applications we received over the spring and summer,” said President Randy Moffett. “Part of this is certainly due to the shifting population demographics of the area; however, we have marketed the university’s wide variety of strong academic programs, undergraduate research and modern facilities which surveys indicate play a major role in a student’s college selection.”
Moffett said the overall decrease in enrollment was also anticipated. “Due to Katrina’a impact, we lost about 1,500 of our own students, most from the nearby parishes,” he said. “And while about half those students have returned, the other half apparently either have relocated or are not able to return to school yet.”
Moffett said he was particularly pleased to see that the numbers of highly qualified students – those with ACT scores of 24 and above – climbed from 417 last year to 523 this year, an increase of more than 25 percent.
“Over the last several years, we have shown steady increases in attracting these students with special scholarships and a large number of opportunities to pursue undergraduate research and creative activities with our faculty,” he said.
The average ACT composite score for beginning freshmen this fall is 21.1, a slight increase over last year’s 21.0 average.
The total number of new undergraduates – which includes transfer students and those cross-enrolled with other institutions – increased 8.5 percent, from 3,161 last year to 3,430 this semester. In addition, new graduate students number 350, an increase of 8.4 percent over last year.
Enrollment figures from major feeder parishes include: St. Tammany, 3,165 students; Tangipahoa, 2,924; East Baton Rouge, 2,264; Livingston, 1,762; Jefferson, 996; and Ascension, 654.
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