Undergraduate diversity rates this fall are the highest the University has seen since the fall of 2002, according to recent 14th class day numbers.Of the 23,400 undergraduates, 20.2 percent are Asian, African American, non-resident aliens, Hispanic, American Indian or an unknown race. Not since 2002 has the minority rate reached higher than 20 percent — 20.4 — and the past five years have given a standstill average of 19.7 percent. But Mary Parker, executive director of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Aid, said the 5,141-student freshman class brought a 43.4 percent increase in Indian students, a 14 percent increase in African American students and a 9.4 percent increase in Asian students. Hispanic enrollment remained about the same.LSU stands exactly in the middle of its 15 regional peers with a 15 percent minority rate in total enrollment, according to a September issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. The study focused on white, black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, unknown and nonresident alien students. It uses data from the U.S. Education Department’s Fall Enrollment Survey — fall 2006 are most recent data available.Florida led the Chronicle list with a 27 percent minority rate. Mississippi State and the University of Oklahoma followed with  22 percent and 21 percent rates, respectively. West Virginia University and the University of Kentucky were at the bottom of the list with 7 percent and 9 percent rates, respectively.
 
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Contact Sarah Lawson at [email protected]