SOUTHEAST'S ENROLLMENT UP 3 PERCENT THIS FALL

Southeast Missouri State University has nearly 8,500 students enrolled this fall, up 3 percent from a year ago.

Final enrollment figures, taken four weeks into the fall semester, show Southeast has 8,494 students. Last fall enrollment stood at 8,234.

The enrollment figures include students enrolled in on-campus as well as off-campus courses, Southeast officials said.

Undergraduate enrollment increased only 1 percent, but graduate enrollment climbed by 18 percent.

Still, Southeast has relatively few graduate students compared to its undergraduate enrollment. Southeast has 1,045 graduate students and 7,449 undergraduates.

School officials touted the enrollment figures as good news.

"It looks very good," said Dr. Ken Dobbins, the university's executive vice president.

The number of beginning freshmen rose 12 percent. There also were enrollment gains in the number of returning freshmen and seniors.

The sophomore class was down by 11 percent and the number of juniors declined by 2 percent.

Southeast has 404 black undergraduate and graduate students, up 76 from a year ago. Increasing minority enrollment has been a priority of the university in recent years.

"It's not where we want it to be," Dobbins said. Still, he said, it is an improvement.

Southeast hasn't had this many black students since fall 1993 when it had 421.

Dobbins said black enrollment dropped after the fraternity hazing death of Michael Davis in 1994. But Dobbins said the university has made strides since then to recruit more black students.

The number of black graduate students has nearly doubled from 26 in fall 1997 to 46 this year, according to Southeast's office of institutional research.