ST. LOUIS IS BOOMING COUNTY FOR SOUTHEAST

Southeast Missouri State University is a two-hour drive from St. Louis County, but it's recruiting hundreds of students in the area it increasingly views as its own backyard.

The university gained considerably in the enrollment of St. Louis County students from 1996 to 2000. But at the same time, the school has experienced enrollment declines in some Southeast Missouri counties and the city of St. Louis, a university analysis released this month shows.

Over the past four years, the number of Southeast undergraduates from St. Louis has grown from 615 to 1,114. The increase of 499 students is the largest gain in university enrollment from 1996 to 2000 from any county in Missouri.

This fall, St. Louis County ranked second only to Cape Girardeau County -- Southeast's home -- in the number of students attending the university. Students from the St. Louis area say they like the small class sizes and low tuition at Southeast.

A total of 1,580 students from Cape Girardeau County attended Southeast this semester, the university's institutional research office said. That was up 72 students from fall 1996 figures.

The university increasingly has turned to the St. Louis area in its efforts to boost enrollment and move toward its goal of 10,300 students, outlined in its four-year-old strategic plan. Graduate and undergraduate enrollment in the just-completed fall semester totaled 8,951 students. Even with modest gains, the university could reach its enrollment goal by 2005, said admissions director Jay Goff.

Reaching the region

School officials say they aren't ignoring the Southeast Missouri region. They insist they are making efforts through various programs and the area higher education centers to reach the region's students.

"We are not abandoning Southeast Missouri," said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at the university.

The university plans to unveil a new program next year called "College is Possible." The program will target sixth, seventh and eighth graders in Southeast Missouri in an effort to get them thinking about going to college.

School officials say such a program is needed in a region of the state where many residents don't see college as an option.

In 1997, less than half of high school graduates in many Southeast Missouri counties planned to attend college, Wallhausen said. In contrast, over 60 percent of high school graduates in St. Louis County indicated plans to attend college.

The large number of potential college students in the St. Louis area makes it an attractive recruiting area. The university has been making a concerted effort to recruit St. Louis area students dating back to 1991, and those efforts are paying off, Goff said.

Of new students from the St. Louis metropolitan area who attended four-year public colleges in Missouri in the 1999-2000 school year, 12.8 percent attended Southeast. That was second only to the University of Missouri-Columbia, which attracted 30.6 percent of the metro St. Louis area students, Goff said.

The biggest decrease in the last four years has been in the number of students from the city of St. Louis. The number of undergraduates from the city of St. Louis declined from 309 in 1996 to 136 this fall, a drop of 173 students.

Goff said part of the problem in the city of St. Louis is the high dropout rate among high school students. "We are still seeing a 50 to 60 percent dropout rate in St. Louis public schools."

Small gains locally

In Southeast Missouri, the university is the school of choice for 73 percent of the students who attend four-year colleges, up from 68 percent four years ago. Even so, the numbers' gain has been small.

Scott County had 94 more students attending Southeast this fall than four years ago. The numbers were up in Stoddard and Cape Girardeau counties too, by 79 and 72 students, respectively.

But those numbers largely were offset by declines in other counties. Southeast has experienced enrollment declines in Dunklin, Iron, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry and St. Francois counties.

In the bedrock Bootheel counties of Mississippi, New Madrid and Pemiscot, the university has seen a combined drop of 113 students. New Madrid County alone sent 57 fewer students to Southeast this fall than it did four years ago.

Southeast's Wallhausen believes the decreases in many cases are tied to declining enrollments in various school districts.

In 1999, for example, the number of students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade in public school districts in Mississippi, New Madrid and Pemiscot counties dropped by 841.

Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president of administration and enrollment management, said the number of high school seniors in the Southeast Missouri region isn't growing. Fox said that underscores the importance of recruiting students in the populated St. Louis area.

Fox said Southeast has done well in recruiting freshmen from the St. Louis metropolitan area, which includes St. Louis city and county, St. Charles and Jefferson counties and the St. Louis Metro East region of Illinois.

The number of beginning freshmen from the St. Louis region increased from 293 in the fall of 1997 to 523 this fall, university records show. St. Louis area students made up 40 percent of the university's total number of beginning freshmen in the fall 2000 semester, up 27 percent from four years ago.