Lamar University’s enrollment has set a new record with 17,850 students for the 2024 fall semester, a 2% increase in headcount and a 3% increase in student credit hours.
President Jaime Taylor said the biggest part of the enrollment increase has been the freshman class, which is up by 11%, with the number of transfer students up by 14%.
Katrina Brent, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing said the numbers revolve around the great work that’s happening across the campus with recruitment events, especially Cardinal View, which attracts high school students to campus in the fall and in the spring.
“Those events have grown probably twofold just in the last few years since Dr Taylor has been here,” she said. “I feel like a lot of it comes from support from the top, pushing everyone to get involved, that everyone is part of recruiting. We’ve seen steady increases at those events, which has trickled out to the community wanting to come, because almost 50% of students who come to Cardinal View enroll here.”
Taylor said Brent has done a lot for recruiting future Cardinals.
“Cardinal View is a big part of that, but so are the campus tours,” he said. “You also got the new Welcome Center, and every day I sit here and the tours go right down (past his office). They stop right here at the corners. I see all these students and I think the number of students visiting campus is up probably this September over the last three years by 150-200%.”
Brent said the enrollment numbers have many contributing factors.
“It’s going to the schools and talking to them about Lamar University, it’s building partnerships amongst everyone in the community and they start talking about it,” she said.
“It’s also athletics. When we win in athletics, more people want to come here for games. They get that campus experience. I think since we did bring in a large class this fall, not only freshmen and transfers, but other students are now being more involved on campus. We’re seeing huge increases just on involvement.”
Taylor said the new vice president for student affairs, Freddie Titus, has contributed much to the rising student engagement.
“Of course, all the students love Dr. Titus,” he said. “He’s been here for 47 years, and he’s very engaged with the students. He’s been asking them, ‘What do you want? What are the activities you want us to provide for you?’ like the Waka Flocka Flame concert. It was a huge turnout. My understanding is we’re up 50% in the number of students participating in campus activities this semester, and I attribute a lot of that to the leadership of Dr. Freddie Titus.”
Student input has been directly involved in adding new things to campus, such as new chairs in the Setzer Student Center and in the Brooks-Shivers Dining Hall, Taylor said.
“When they ask for something, we do our best to give it to them,” he said. “I think that word is getting out in the community that there’s more campus life at Lamar University than there has been.”
To help increase student attendance for on-campus events, President Taylor has made plans to move some of the holiday-oriented events up earlier than usual, the annual Cardinal Lights show being an example.
“We’re going to move it up two weeks,” he said. “We usually do it after Thanksgiving, but this year we’re going to do it the week before, so we can get some more people to be there. We want students to go to see it, because usually when they go home for the holidays after Thanksgiving, some of them don’t come back.”
Brent said the plan is for enrollment numbers to continue to increase.
“We’re already well on our way to recruiting season for next fall, so we’re seeing some positives in campus tours and in our Cardinal View event, which we’re seeing up over last year,” she said. “There’s lots of momentum. Hopefully, a lot of the stuff we’re doing right now will also help with student retention.”
The next Cardinal View is scheduled for Nov. 16.