About 200 to 300 fewer students will be enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University this fall than last year.

Enrollment is expected to decline by about 4 percent, university President Kala Stroup said Friday. Fall semester classes begin Monday.

It is estimated that about 7,800 graduate and undergraduate students will be enrolled at Southeast this fall compared to almost 8,100 last year.

The projected decrease continues a trend of declining enrollment at the school.

About 360 fewer students were enrolled at Southeast last fall. In 1992, fall enrollment stood at 8,444.

Speaking to representatives of the news media, Stroup said the trend of declining enrollment has been experienced at universities across Missouri.

Eight of Missouri's four-year colleges and universities saw a combined enrollment drop of 4,120 students last fall.

Stroup said the regional universities experienced an average decrease in full-time equivalent enrollment of 5.2 percent.

There are a number of reasons for the enrollment drop, said Stroup. The pool of high school graduates has decreased and the university, like other Missouri schools, has increased its admission standards in recent years.

"We are going to focus on having a high retention and graduation rate," said Stroup.

Although enrollment has declined, there hasn't been a corresponding drop in the number of university faculty members and staff.

Like other universities nationwide, Stroup said Southeast has sought out federal grants and private money to fund an increasing number of positions at the school.

Also, national accreditation standards require the university to meet certain student-faculty ratios.

Enrollment at the University of Missouri-Columbia declined by 1,178 students last fall. But the enrollment picture looks better this year, with the school expecting to admit 600 to 700 more first-time freshmen than last fall.

Southeast officials Friday lauded the school's new computer labs where students can tie into Internet, a computer network linking universities and research institutions nationwide.

"It is an incredible, incredible resource," said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

The school has four computer centers, spread out across the campus. The center in Kent Library has been outfitted with 40 new computers.

Among Stroup's list of top projects and programs for the university this school year:

-- Groundbreaking for the College of Business building.

-- Completion of the $11 million Towers renovation project.

-- Completion of the Parker Building renovation.

-- Holding public hearings as part of an effort to develop a strategic plan for the school.

-- New computer facilities.

-- Inauguration of a four-year degree program at Poplar Bluff.

-- Installation of the first distance-learning equipment, which will allow two-way video communication between a classroom at Southeast and a classroom at the Bootheel Education Center in Malden.