ENMU enrollment rises 8 percent for summer session

Eastern New Mexico University’s enrollment for the last two years has been bucking a downward trend and the same held true for the summer session.

University President Steven Gamble said enrollment for the summer session this year is at 1,240, up 8 percent from last year’s total of 1,143, an increase of 97 students.

The enrollment in the fall was at 3,725, up from 3,638 the previous fall. There had been a six-year downward spiral in enrollment before the fall of 2003.

Gamble said the increase has been because of the recruiting efforts.

“This reflects the hard work spent on recruiting,” Gamble said. “Most of the increase of enrollment this year has been in graduate students.”

The number for the spring semester was 3,491, an increase of 194 students from the previous spring semester.

“It’s been a university-wide effort,” ENMU Vice President of Relations and Enrollment Ronnie Birdsong said in a previous article about the increase in the spring. “We’ve been in a new plan for two falls now. ENMU students respond to prospective students’ inquiries in a good response time.”

Gamble said there are 67 more graduates and 30 more undergraduates enrolled this summer than the 2003 summer session. He also said some of the increase is also due to online courses.

“Most of the increase has been because of the increase in graduates,” Gamble said. “The last couple of summers those graduate numbers had been declining.”

Gamble said one of the reasons for the increase is because of new state legislation requiring more teachers to go back to school. However, he said much of the credit still goes to the new students recruiters have been able to bring in.

“We want to continue our growth,” Gamble said. “We’ve been fortunate to have student growth and we’d like to see more growth in the fall.”