9/19/01

David M. Granger

AU ENROLLS RECORD CLASS, SEES RISE IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FRESHMEN

AUBURN -- Auburn University's fall semester enrollment is a record 22,469 students, highlighted by a 24 percent increase in the admittance of African-American students in the 2001 freshman class.

The official enrollment numbers released Wednesday showed AU enrollment's surpassed the previous record of 22,122 set in the fall of 1995 and was up 600 from last fall's total of 21,860. AU's new freshman class of 3,746 was down slightly from the record 3,864 in 2000.

AU retained its position as the state's largest university.

One of the most encouraging numbers to Auburn administrators was a jump in AU's African-American enrollment, both overall and in the new freshman class. Overall, AU's African-American student population rose 8.2 percent from 1,493 to 1,616. Black students now make up 7.2 percent of the Auburn student population.

The numbers for new freshmen were even more encouraging. Despite the freshman class being smaller overall, the African-American population of the class jumped 24 percent from 273 last year to 337. Nine percent of AU's new freshmen are black, up from 7.1 percent in 2000.

Auburn's increased minority enrollment runs counter to the most recent numbers at peer institutions in neighboring states. At the University of Florida, the percentage of African- American students among new freshmen fell from 11.1 percent last year to 7.2 this fall. The University of Georgia also experienced a slight decrease in black freshmen this fall.

"We've done quite a bit in the way of efforts to increase our ability to attract strong African-American students," said Doyle Bickers, AU's director of admissions. "We've got staff members who work specifically toward that goal. But the bottom line is that Auburn University sells itself."

Bickers said the increase in black enrollment is especially encouraging because Auburn competes for those students with colleges and universities able to offer far more in the way of scholarships to qualified minority students.

"Some of the packages that are offered to the same African-American students that we target are absolutely staggering," he said. "For us to be able to really compete with them will require some significant beefing up of our scholarship packages. Still, to show this kind of increase despite that disadvantage speaks loudly of Auburn's value as an institution of higher learning."

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CONTACT: Bickers, 334-844-4080; John Fletcher, 334-844-6420.