NSU enrollment increases for Fall 2010

Enrollment at Northeastern State University rose again for the Fall 2010 term, with the institution announcing a combined enrollment of 9,588 at the Tahlequah, Muskogee and Broken Arrow campuses.

Figures were up 2 percent at Tahlequah, 7.7 percent at Muskogee and 5.5 percent at Broken Arrow.

This fall's enrollment is an increase of 2.9 percent over the Fall 2009 number of 9,318 and this semester's figure is just 53 students shy of NSU's record. This term's freshman class is also large, numbering 1,223.

"We are delighted to welcome nearly 10,000 students," said NSU President Don Betz. "The enthusiasm of our record freshmen class was evident from Rookie Bridge Camp through the First Year Experience to the first days of classes and university activities."

NSU's graduate school set a record for credit hours enrolled with 7,457, an increase of 1.6 percent. The Broken Arrow campus set records for students and credit hours enrolled with 3,411 and 24,911, respectively.

Betz also extended a welcome to continuing students and credited the work of the NSU community for helping increase enrollment.

"The staff and faculty who have contributed so diligently to creating this place of learning and serving are to be publicly commended for their innumerable contributions," he said. "They are the faces of Northeasterngreeting, assisting and educating our students."

Getting students to attend NSU was not the ultimate end, Betz said.

"Our goal now refocuses from recruitment and admission to persistence and retention and, our true goal, graduation," he said. "NSU is dedicated to our students' empowerment as lifelong learners and to their success as college graduates and valued citizens, neighbors and friends."

Credit hour enrollment increased 2.9 percent over last fall, from 106,788 to 109,857.

The College of Liberal Arts saw the largest increase in credit hours enrolled, up 6.7 percent. The College of Science and Health Professions followed closely with an increase of 6.5 percent. NSU has targeted CSHP for growth at all three campuses because of the shortage of health care workers anticipated in Oklahoma in 2012. The state is also expecting a shortage of professionals in science, technology, engineering and math by 2014.

NSU's Oklahoma College of Optometry recorded a 4.6 percent increase in hours enrolled and the College of Education was up 2.8 percent.