Thus, there was little incentive to provide the academic support typically utilized to attract and retain lower level students. Like a revolving door, part time students dropped in and out of school from semester to semester, yet persisted over a period of eight to ten years to eventually complete their degrees. The opportunity to attend to this attrition was also bypassed during the upper-level years. The University's authority to offer freshman courses in the Fall of 1991 provided an opportunity to chart a new course. Even without a definitive strategy for minority recruitment, The University experienced an increase in minority enrollment with the freshman class.
Several initiatives are responsible for engaging minority and freshman interest.
These initiatives included additional emphasis on providing easily accessible academic and financial aid counseling, tutoring services, scholarships and grants. The average class consists of 15.6 students with a student faculty ratio of 16.4 in the College of Arts and Sciences, 13.4 in the School of Business and 15.1 for the School of Education. The University's four-year status, as well as demographic changes in the region, demand a broader and stronger commitment to inclusion and diversity. These demographic changes and the recent four-year University status, are major considerations in current student recruiting and retention efforts. Current student enrollment does not reflect parity, however, minority and female enrollment has shown steady increases since 1991.