Freshmen boost ULL summer class

Advocate staff photo by BRYAN TUCKUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette students, from left, Tracy Protti, John Mayfield and Jayla Richardson study for their biology final Wednesday at the Dupre Library on campus. The university reported a strong summer school enrollment, but expects a slight dip in fall freshmen enrollment due to changing admissions standards.

LAFAYETTE -- Freshman summer school enrollment at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette increased by 66 percent — a boost officials initially attributed to tougher admissions standards that take effect in the fall.

Beginning in the fall, the university will no longer admit students who need remedial coursework, a policy change that will also be implemented at LSU, the University of New Orleans and Louisiana Tech University and by 2014 at the state’s other four-year public universities.

DeWayne Bowie, vice president of enrollment management at ULL, said the policy change “wasn’t the main draw” for the jump in freshmen enrollment in summer school from 169 last year to 282 this year.

“I think we had more students interested in summer school,” he said. “We doubled our applications compared to last summer.”

ULL previously allowed summer school enrollment to students who needed only one remedial course in either English or math.

This summer, 37 freshmen enrolled in the English remedial course and 63 freshmen enrolled in remedial math.

In 2005, ULL and other four-year universities implemented selective admissions requirements as a way to divert academically unprepared students to community colleges. The elimination of developmental or remedial courses at universities will push more students to community colleges, officials said.

“It’s a move that a lot of four-year institutions have made. They don’t want to be in the business of remediation,” said Rochelle Moore, South Louisiana Community College vice chancellor of student services.

Moore said the college isn’t anticipating a major enrollment increase related to ULL’s admissions policy change.

“We may not see a lot of growth in (full-time enrollment) because some of the students may just come part time,” Moore said.

Last fall, of the 3,842 enrolled at Acadiana Technical College, 943 were first-time freshmen. Of the 3,897 students enrolled at SLCC, 918 were first-time freshmen, according to data from the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Due to the changing admissions requirements, ULL was bracing for a 30 percent drop in its freshmen enrollment this fall, but strong summer and fall applications indicate there will be a decrease of about 12 percent in enrollment, Bowie said.

Last fall, the university enrolled 2,983 first-time freshmen and enrolled 16,885 students.

Bowie said the university is preparing for 2,600 to 2,700 first-time freshmen this fall.