Last week, Inside Nicholls reported “a 73.5% increase in high school students participating in dual enrollment courses both within and outside of campus,” shedding light on this fall’s growth in student enrollment. 

Dr. Sue Westbrook, the Provost and Vice-President of Academic Affairs., said, “What has made our enrollment appear to have increased so much is the dual-enrollment.” 

Westbrook credited this victory to the hard work of the admissions and marketing teams. 

Dr. Katie Martin, the Director of Admissions for Nicholls, said “This was a campus wide recruitment effort. In addition to the admissions recruiting process, the academic departments held several open houses, there were additional reach out and marketing efforts, and we restructured our scholarship criteria.”

Westbrook said, “Even though the freshman class has increased some, it’s not where it needs to be.”

She expressed the need to continue welcoming as many freshmen as possible, since enrollment numbers have decreased the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ida. 

As for adjusting to the influx of current students, Westbrook aims to wait and more fully observe its impact before taking immediate action.

She said, “We will have to see what happens in spring, because there may be some classes that will have to be taught by adjuncts […]. We will definitely get the classes offered if the need is there.”

On behalf of the Admissions Department, Martin said, “We’re excited to have a new class join our campus community. They bring a great energy. Students are eager to get involved in campus activities and it’s great to see student engagement.”