The University is taking steps to enlarge its student body while keeping it academically sound — a combination of the past two chancellors’ efforts — according to Jim McCoy, vice provost of enrollment management, planning and policy.With the Flagship Agenda ending its initial campaign in 2010, University administrators are looking past the now six-year-old program’s end date to the agenda’s upkeep phase. Enrollment, graduation and retention rates are high on the list for maintenance and improvement.The University is fighting to compete with its Southeastern Conference peers. Of the 12 schools in the conference, LSU ranks seventh for first-year retention rates, eighth for graduation rates and fourth in enrollment for its fall 2007 figures.McCoy said the University would like to see a stabalized enrollment of 31,000 as soon as possible. He said the number is not a new thing, but the last time numbers were that high, academic standards were lower. When former Chancellor Sean O’Keefe arrived in 2005, he raised academic standards to where they are now, and enrollment numbers fell from 32,241 in 2004 to 28,628  in 2007 — a 10.4 percent decrease. McCoy said the enrollment pool would be the “best of both worlds,” a mixture between O’Keefe’s and Emmert’s administrations.McCoy said academic standards will either stay the same or increase in the future, and officials will work to keep Louisiana students in the state, recruit more out-of-state students and make the graduate program more attractive. Louisiana students are the recruiters’ primary target, McCoy said. “We don’t say ‘no’ to people that are qualified,” McCoy said. “We’re not turning away someone from New Iberia to take someone from Little Rock.”  While in-state recruiting has been expanding, he said an aggressive direct mail campaign has been used to reach out-of-state students since 2006 — personalized invitations to apply have been sent to “high ability students” in areas less-traveled by officials. McCoy said those receiving the letters have expressed interest in the University, or their names have been purchased from standardized test databases.The universities of Florida and Georgia topped the fall 2007 enrollment list with 51,725 and 33,831, respectively. But LSU is third in average enrollment as of 2007 with an average of 30,798 students during the past five years. Vanderbilt University had the highest graduation rate in 2007 with 91 percent, followed by Florida with 81 percent. LSU earned a 59.8 percent graduation rate. University of Tennessee had the worst rates with 57.8 percent.During the past five years, LSU has averaged a first-year retention rate of 83.9 percent. It retained 84.7 percent of its students to a second year in fall 2007. Vanderbilt also led that list with a 95.2 percent average. With about 5,110 incoming freshmen this fall, McCoy said LSU is seeing a rise back to its 2004 first-year enrollment of 5,700. He said the mean ACT composite score for the group should be at least a 25.3 — the fall 2007 cohort’s average.For the average of the past five years, LSU is third in a list of six SEC schools for ACT composite with a 24.8, and it has seen a 4 percent increase in its scores during that time. The University of Arkansas led the list of schools providing ACT data with an average of 25.5. Darrell Ray, assistant vice chancellor and director of First Year Experience, said LSU would ideally like to retain about 90 percent of its first-year students to their second year.”Our biggest hole in the boat is freshman to sophomore [year] and the third semester,” McCoy said. McCoy said LSU is taking steps to retain its students with the new First Year Experience in the division of Student Life and the new Comprehensive Academic Tracking System, which works with senior colleges.The First Year Experience aims to create a “programmatic transition” — socially and academically — to LSU’s environment, Ray said. “Research has consistently shown the first year is the most important year in a college student’s life,” Ray said. Agendas like the Experience are geared toward helping to make the incoming freshman population a constant. Ray said the target six-year graduation rate for the fall 2009 cohort is 67 percent.”Graduation rates measure for us the rate of success we have,” McCoy said. Patrick Hilliard, international marketing junior, said the Flagship Agenda will positively affect the stature of his degree when he graduates.”It puts you in a good position after college, networking-wise,” Hilliard said.But Laci Lemoine, English and secondary education junior, said the agenda has not affected the prominence of her degree. She said while a degree is required for her intended line of work, her LSU degree isn’t going to be very valuable. Only about 20 percent of her coursework will “contribute positively” to her future, she said.”You have to have [a degree] to get your job,” Lemoine said. “I feel like I’m stuck … I’m here to get that piece of paper.”Exact retention, graduation, enrollment and standardized test scores will be available Sept. 18.—-Contact Sarah Lawson at [email protected]