Southeast enrollment down slightly

Southeast Missouri State University has 99 fewer students enrolled in classes this spring than a year ago, school officials said Tuesday.

Southeast's final enrollment after four weeks of classes stands at 8,894, down from 8,993 in spring 2003.

The enrollment decline is in the number of graduate students. Southeast has 1,085 graduate students, down 9.1 percent from a year ago.

Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management, said that while enrollment is "flat" this spring, there is no evidence it will remain stagnant.

"Our expectation is that entering enrollment will go up in the fall," he said.

Holt said the decline in graduate students was in education classes. That's partly because elementary and secondary teachers can take state-sponsored education workshops for continuing education credits rather than have to pay tuition for gradate courses that serve the same purpose, he said.

"Certainly we will be looking at our graduate programs and determining what we should be offering," he said.

The university has 7,809 undergraduate students, up 10 students from a a year ago, officials said.

Southeast has 118 beginning freshmen, down 6.3 percent from spring 2003. Continuing freshmen headcount stands at 1,563, down 5.4 percent. Southeast has 1,523 sophomores, down 6.6 percent.

But the number of juniors and seniors is up. The school has 1,709 juniors enrolled in classes, up 8.6 percent. The university has 2,189 seniors, up 4.2 percent, officials said.