While some historically Black colleges and universities have seen significant enrollment declines in recent years, there is good news to report on many fronts.
Langston University in Oklahoma reports the largest incoming class in the history of the educational institution. There are 692 first-year students on campus this fall. This is a 40 percent increase over several years ago. Total enrollments at Langston University are 2,567 this fall.
At Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, there are 707 first-year students on campus this fall. This is an increase from 597 first-year students in last year’s entering class. Overall enrollments at the college are up 2.4 percent from last fall.
Mississippi Valley State University reports total enrollments of 2,310, up 4 percent from a year ago. This is the second straight year the university has reported an enrollment increase.
South Carolina State University had experienced a 40 percent decline in enrollments since 2007. This year the university projected enrollments of 2,650 students. But a preliminary census count finds that there are 2,862 students enrolled.
Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has enrolled its largest first-year class in the past decade. There are a total of 1,210 first-year students on campus this fall, compared to 942 a year ago. This is a 28.5 percent increase from 2014. At the New Orleans campus of Southern University, first-year enrollments increased from 143 to 206 students.
At Jackson State University in Mississippi, total enrollments this fall are 9,802. This is an increase of 294 students from a year ago.
Hampton University in Virginia has 1,053 new students on campus this fall. Last year there were 904 new students on campus.
At Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, there are 684 first-time, first-year students on campus. This is an increase from 579 a year ago.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has 685 new first-year students on campus, up from 496 a year ago. This is a 38 percent increase. Total enrollments have increased from 2,513 in 2014 to 2,666, a 6.1 percent gain.
Note: An earlier edition of this post had listed the figures for Benedict College shown above as those for Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. We apologize to both college communities for our error. Bennett College reports that the number of first-year students increased from 181 in the fall of 2014 to 190 in the fall of 2015, a 4.97 percent increase. The retention rate for sophomores also increased from 54 percent in 2014 to 62 percent in 2015.
Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA. also experienced an increase in enrollment this year with total enrollment reaching more than 1800 students.