First-day enrollment down at Southeast

Southeast Missouri State University's fall enrollment was down only slightly on the first day of classes compared to a year ago, school officials said Wednesday.

Southeast had 9,404 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled as of the start of fall classes on Monday. That was just 21 fewer than the start of classes a year ago.

The university surpassed the 10,000 enrollment mark at the fourth week census last fall, an enrollment record for the Cape Girardeau school. Southeast had 10,292 students in all, up from 9,618 in fall 2004.

School officials expect this fall's enrollment to closely mirror the total from a year ago.

"Based on opening-day figures, we expect to break 10,000 again at the fourth-week census, but the final count could be somewhat lower than last year," said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president for administration and enrollment management.

As of Monday, Southeast had 8,449 undergraduates, down 1.1 percent from a year ago.

Southeast had 1,514 beginning freshmen, down from 1,696 in fall 2005.

Holt said school officials haven't pinpointed the reasons for the downturn. But he said the first-day total for freshmen is comparable to the figure at the start of the fall 2004 enrollment.

That might indicate that last year's boost in freshmen enrollment was a "bump" rather than a trend, he said.

The number of returning freshmen on Monday stood at 1,014, up 6.6 percent.

On the first day of classes, Southeast had 1,760 sophomores, up 4.9 percent; 1,669 juniors, up 1.2 percent; and 2,133 seniors, down 2.5 percent.

Total graduate student headcount stood at 955 compared with 885 a year ago.

The enrollment figures for graduate and undergraduate students include those taking online classes and classes at Southeast's area higher education centers, Holt said.