Southeast Missouri State University has 7,396 students enrolled this spring semester, down 44, or 1 percent, from this time a year ago, school officials said.

The figures reflect enrollment as of Monday, the first day of classes.

According to the figures released Tuesday, total undergraduate headcount stands at 6,766, down 173 or 2 percent from the spring 1993 semester. But the total number of part-time undergraduates, those taking less than 12 hours of classes, stands at 1,276, up 18 or 1 percent from this time a year ago.

A total of 630 graduate students are enrolled in classes, up 129 or 26 percent from a year ago, officials said.

Boosting enrollment and retaining students have been major goals of the administration of university President Kala Stroup.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said Tuesday that the first-day numbers may augur well for the future.

"At this time, I would say we are cautiously optimistic that it will look pretty good when we get to analyzing the final figures," he said.

The final census for the spring semester will be taken on Feb. 4, the end of the fourth week of classes.

Wallhausen said enrollment is not down as much from last spring to this spring as it was between the fall semesters of 1993 and 1992.

Last fall, enrollment was down 307 or 3.8 percent at the start of the semester, compared to the same period the previous year.

Wallhausen said it's difficult to compare enrollment figures. "We have telephone registration right now and we didn't have it last spring."

He said, "It looks like retention has been slightly better, but we won't know that until the official census. At that point, we will be able to compare apples to apples."

He added, "We look very carefully at the spring numbers now because it indicates the fall to spring retention of students."

Higher admissions standards, implemented over the past several years, should lead to greater retention of students, he said.

Wallhausen said there's always a major drop in enrollment from the fall to the spring semester. "You have a big graduating class in December with a relatively small number of people who start as freshmen in the spring semester."