Contact: Joe Farris
Mississippi State has set its fourth consecutive enrollment record with more than 16,000 students taking classes this fall, and officials say the university needs to hold the line on further increases in order to ensure quality.
Enrollment on the Starkville campus alone has grown by about 1,700 over the past four years, putting strains on the university's academic infrastructure, said President Malcolm Portera.
"We're adding new faculty positions, making significant new investments in the library and instructional technology, and upgrading our physical plant, but continuing enrollment increases would stretch our resources to the point that quality could be affected," Portera said.
"We can accommodate more students at the Meridian Campus, which should continue to grow, but our enrollment in Starkville is as large as it needs to be for the foreseeable future," he said.
This fall's total enrollment of 16,047 includes 15,270 students on the main campus in Starkville and 710 at the Meridian Campus. The remaining students are in graduate programs at Vicksburg or the Stennis Space Center at Bay St. Louis.
"A top strategic goal of the university for the next five years is to offer the region's premier undergraduate teaching program at a public university," Portera said. "To do that, we must concentrate on raising the academic profile of our students and make sure we're focused on quality in all that we do."
This fall's entering class of new, full-time freshmen is the second largest in university history, with 1,986 members, up by 116 from last year. Overall enrollment is up by 329 students from last fall.
"Mississippi State can't readily absorb any larger influxes of new students without over-stretching our faculty, our physical plant, and our community infrastructure," Portera said.
"Fortunately for the university and the increasing number of Mississippians seeking higher education, our state has a superb system of community colleges that ensures access to college for everyone," he said.
"We're eager to build on our strong ties with the community colleges to help see that every prospective college student has the opportunity to pursue higher education and to progress as far as their abilities will take them," Portera said.
"This university is very pleased with the academic preparation of the hundreds of community college graduates who enter Mississippi State each year. Building on that two-plus-two system may offer the best approach in the future for MSU, our community college partners, and some of the students currently enrolling here as freshmen," he said.
About 75 percent of this fall's students are Mississippi residents and more than 80 percent are undergraduates. Graduate enrollment is at an all-time high with 3,186 students.
African-American enrollment also is at an all-time high this fall with 2,722 students, or 17 percent of total enrollment. African-Americans make up 21 percent of the new freshman class. A university goal is to expand African-American enrollment to 20 percent over the next five years.
The College of Arts and Sciences remains the largest of the academic units, with about 4,500 students. The College of Education enrolls almost 2,900; the College of Business and Industry, including the School of Accountancy, more than 2,800; the College of Engineering, almost 2,700; the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, more than 1,600; the College of Forest Resources, about 450; the School of Architecture, 298, and the College of Veterinary Medicine, 236. About 580 students are not classified by major.