A strong retention rate and rise in the number of freshmen fall quarter contributed to a 1 percent enrollment increase on the Athens campus. According to final fall enrollment figures from the Office of Institutional Research, 19,189 students were enrolled, up from 18,997 students in fall quarter 1996.
The Athens campus enrollment this year includes 16,185 undergraduates, 2,589 graduate students and 415 medical students. A record 11,974 high school seniors applied for fall freshman admission, 8,956 were admitted and 3,309 enrolled, up from 3,191 freshmen in 1996.
Despite the overall strong enrollment numbers, Provost Sharon Brehm said she is concerned about a relatively low percentage of African-American students on campus. This ye ar’s Athens freshman class includes 116 new African-American freshmen or 3.6 percent of the class, down from 3.8 percent in fall 1996 and 5.2 percent in fall 1995.
Total undergraduate and graduate school African-American enrollment in Athens this fall was 673, a 3.6 percent decrease from 1996.
Brehm said she has established the Advisory Council on Minority Recruitment and Retention to develop “a broad-based sustained approach that will help the university to create a more diverse and inclusiv e community.”
Overall, an additional 8,041 students were enrolled at the five regional campuses this fall, up from 7,945 students enrolled in fall quarter 1996. All regional campuses except the Eastern Campus in St. Clairsville experienced enrollment increases.
The Athens and regional campuses had a total enrollment of 27,605 students, a 0.8 percent increase over the 27,386 enrolled in 1996. The total enrollment figure includes 375 students taking graduate and undergraduate continuing educat ion courses.
This fall’s freshmen began classes with university-record average ACT and SAT composite scores of 23.9 and 1,110, respectively, breaking records established the previous year. The academic quality of freshmen has steadily increased since the campus began a selective admission policy in the fall of 1986. Freshman applications have steadily increased since 7,638 applied for admission in 1986.
