To: Faculty and Staff
From: Stephen T. Hulbert, President
The official numbers are complete for the Spring 2005 semester and I am pleased to report that the University’s enrollment reflects just over a 3% increase. Enrollment is up to 6922; 208 higher than last spring’s total figure. The largest increase is in our first year students. After an increase of 190 new students in the Fall 2004 semester, the University has an increase of 203 students for this spring.
Retention of first time entering freshmen from fall to spring actually took a slight downward turn, dropping from 83.34% to 82.72%. Since the entering class was so much larger than the previous fall, the number of students retained was still 148 more than last year. While over all retention dropped slightly, retention of minority students saw a slight increase. African American students were retained at a rate of 82.7%, an increase of 0.8%. All other minorities, excluding African American, increased from 84.26% to 84.51%.
Total credit hours have increased again for Spring 2005. The total credit hours figure for Spring 2004 was 83,439, which represents a 4.1% increase against last year. The increase of 3,461 hours brings this semester’s total to 86,900. The average course load for undergraduate students remained steady, but the average course load for graduate students rose by 0.18 to 5.63 hours.
Several changes were made in academic departments in the fall semester as the result of a university reorganization plan. All comparisons of growth in academic departments take into account these changes. The academic area of greatest growth in percentage points was the Department of Psychology and Counselor Education with an increase of 34.6 % (36 students). The largest increase in number of students was the Department of Nursing with an increase of 132 students (19.4%). The College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences had the most growth with a 12.5% increase from last spring.
Biological Sciences showed a significant increase of 17.2%, with its current enrollment of 354 students. History and Social Sciences had an increase of 9.2%, from 272 in Spring 2004 to 297 in Spring 2005.
Enrollment in Graduate degrees is continuing to show a downward turn in all colleges. More analysis of this trend will be forthcoming as it represents a significant change for the University’s move in standing within the Southern Region. Undergraduate majors showing decreases include Languages & Literature (-10.0%), Physical Sciences (-8.1%), Information Systems (-18.3%) and Management and Marketing (-8.4%).
Faculty and staff wishing to review the detailed enrollment data for Spring 2005 are invited to go to the Institutional Research site on the University web page at http://www.nicholls.edu/ir.