FRESHMAN ENROLLMENT UP FOR FALL TERM AT SOUTHEAST

There are encouraging signs freshmen enrollment may be up at Southeast Missouri State University next fall, school officials say.

James Biundo, assistant vice president of university relations, said about 220 more beginning freshmen have signed up for orientation and registration sessions than last year.

The school has added another session for June 24 to meet the demand. Two sessions are planned for July.

Between Feb. 18 and June 3, five sessions were held on campus. In all, they attracted 743 students and 1,000 family members.

Another 665 students are scheduled to attend orientation sessions this summer.

Campus housing contracts for beginning freshmen are up about 260 from last year, he said.

All of this leaves Southeast officials optimistic the freshmen enrollment slide is over.

The school had 1,217 beginning freshmen last fall, down only a dozen from the previous fall.

The freshmen enrollment remained steady, while overall enrollment declined by 159 students.

With the number of high school graduates in the region projected to climb, Biundo and Admissions Director Juan Crites think Southeast will see increased enrollment.

The school has strengthened its recruiting efforts in the last four years.

But Crites and Biundo said recruiting students isn't easy, particularly when many Missouri colleges are going after the same students.

Traditionally, schools didn't compete for students in another college's region. But that has changed. Faced with enrollment declines, schools became more aggressive in their recruiting.

"Pretty soon, all the lines started getting blurred," Biundo said.

Even with increased competition for students, few Missourians are going to schools in Arkansas and Kentucky.

Of the 30,114 Missourians enrolled in college in 1993, only 5,551 attended out-of-state schools, Biundo said. Of that minority of students, only 394 attended schools in Arkansas and 82 enrolled in Kentucky colleges.

Even with a large pool of prospective students, a college will attract only a small number.

Last year, Southeast began with 18,000 prospective students from Southeast Missouri, St. Louis, Chicago, Southern Illinois and parts of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Like other colleges, Southeast buys lists of names from the American College Testing organization, which provides the standardized tests used as entrance exams.

Of the 18,000 prospects, Southeast admitted 2,500 last fall. But only 1,217 of those actually enrolled.

This year, Southeast has expanded its pool of prospective students to 20,000 in hopes of recruiting more students.

"We rely pretty heavily on direct mail," Biundo said.