Departments opened their doors and residential life opened its halls this semester to LSU’s largest enrollment since 2004.
LSU President F. King Alexander said student enrollment across all campuses increased by nearly 1,000 students this fall. The main campus drew in 31,000 students — about 500 more students than last year.
The total includes the flagship campus’ fourth-largest freshman class ever with 5,624 students.
“A special thanks goes to all of our enrollment management staff for their hard work and recruiting efforts, along with all of our faculty, staff and students for helping to make LSU one of the most desirable places to get an education,” Alexander said at a Board of Supervisors meeting Sept. 18.
LSU Dean of Students Maria Fuentes-Martin joined campus faculty in July, and the Southern Texas native said she was not surprised by the increase. Most of her high school friends attended LSU even though they were from out of state, she said.
“I think LSU will always be attractive in the opportunity for people to go to college,” Fuentes-Martin said.
Though out-of-state numbers are lower than administrators would like, Fuentes-Martin said in-state enrollment remained strong. She said the media publicity surrounding budget cuts likely deterred prospective out-of-state students from enrolling at LSU.
However, Fuentes-Martin said the benefits of different programs are evaluated on a regular basis, and administration cuts programs it does not think are financially effective. She also said LSU affordability, which is constantly ranked as one of the top in the country, does not affect in-state students who qualify for TOPS.
As dean of students, Fuentes-Martin oversees Student Government and said she wants to ensure the enrollment increase is reflected and represented within the organization.
She increased the number of SG advisers from one to three to account for student population growth.
“I want to make sure that we hear the voices of as many students as possible,” Fuentes-Martin said. “I want to make sure they feel empowered to represent the 31,000 students that we have this semester.”
Each department experienced diversity in enrollees. According to the Office of Budget and Planning, a total of 3,147 African-American students enrolled this semester, as well as 1,547 Hispanics and 1,090 Asians.
Fuentes-Martin said as a Latina female, she understands the need for minority students to find people who look like them when scouting out colleges.
She said she chose to attend the University of Notre Dame because of a Latina recruiter with whom she became close.
“We definitely want to reflect what the state of Louisiana looks like,” Fuentes-Martin said.
LSU’s next challenge is to retain these students and ensure they have the tools to succeed in their collegiate career, she said.
Even though Campus Life has more than 400 student organizations, Fuentes-Martin said there are only two staff members who oversee them — a problem she hopes to fix.
However, Fuentes-Martin said LSU’s easy accessibility, consistent affordability and national visibility during football season should ensure growth for years to come.
“We need to make sure that we’re always supporting initiatives to keep our costs low and our success rate high,” Fuentes-Martin said.