According to the initial enrollment data for fall 2011, the academic capability and retention of students at the University is increasing.

Laynie Barrilleaux, vice president of academic affairs, said that the administration’s attitude toward the LA GRAD Act is to treat the goals as opportunities.

Gov. Bobby Jindal announced the GRAD Act in February 2010. The GRAD Act gives colleges and universities increased independence and flexibility in exchange for a commitment to meet clearly defined statewide performance goals, including raised graduation rates.

“We were doing these things long before the GRAD Act came out, but it does force us to watch the numbers and be conscious of things on a day-to-day basis,” Barrilleaux said. “We are taking this time to show the state what we have been doing and the progress we have made.”

According to the University web site, the retention of first-time freshman students is 70 percent, which exceeds the GRAD Act requirement of 68.1 percent. Also, the average ACT score for first-time freshman students is 21.7, exceeding the national average by 0.6 points and the Louisiana average by 1.6 points.

Renee Hicks, executive director of planning and institutional effectiveness, said the retention rate is based on students who began class last fall and are enrolled again this year as of the 14th class day.

“We got to set our goal for the GRAD Act, so we had access to a lot of data before we set our target numbers,” Hicks said.

The graduation rate is a result of students who began as a full time student in the fall and graduate four years later. Hicks said that from last year, about half of the graduates do not count toward the graduation rate because they were transfer students, part-time students or students who began college in the spring semester.

“As far as the graduation rate, we knew it would be based on the students who started in 2004, and we didn’t anticipate much of an increase because that class was hit really hard with Katrina,” Hicks said. “Some students left for jobs, and some moved.”

Hicks said that the graduation rate this year is estimated to be 28.7 percent. She explained that next year’s the graduation rate is expected to increase to 37.9 percent.

“We set that target much higher because they are the first selective admissions class, and they are college ready,” Hicks said.

According to the University Web site, the University awarded 43 high school valedictorian scholarships for Fall 2011, surpassing last year’s figure by 13 and the previous year’s figure by 19.

Total enrollment is expected to be down 200 students from Fall 2010, but administrators say the decrease was to be expected. Data indicates a Fall 2011 enrollment increase of more than 200 students at Fletcher Technical Community College.

“This is good news, because we are encouraging partnerships between four-year and two-year institutions in Louisiana,” Barrilleaux said. “Gov. Jindal has in fact singled out Nicholls and Fletcher as the model for such partnerships, and these preliminary numbers validate that designation. More and more students are beginning their college education at Fletcher, and, hopefully, will later transfer to Nicholls to complete their four-year degrees.”

The total enrollment shows that Fletcher and Nicholls are working together to ensure access to all students in the region.

Hicks said that collection of data is a community effort with departments meeting weekly to talk about the issues affecting the data and ways to keep everything updated.

“It pays off that we’re number geeks,” Hicks said. “We’re always excited to get the numbers and figure out how much we’ve improved because we’re always focused on that.”