SU, Louisiana colleges focus on recruitment

Louisiana colleges and universities are putting more effort and interest into the recruitment of out-of-state and non-traditional students.
Noel-Levitz, a national consulting firm held meetings with state officials to decide on better methods of increasing enrollment at Louisiana institutions.
At Southern University, there is a large out-of-state population, but there is still a need to increase numbers.
Several recruiters, including Chrisena R. Williams and Tracie Alcorn, travel to different regions of the country to attract high school students to Southern University.
“I have traveled to Texas, Florida, and even as far as Indiana recruiting high school students,” said Alcorn, “Southern University is very popular with students from the northern states since there are not many black colleges in that region.”
Another method of increasing out-of state enrollment that is currently under discussion is lowering the tuition for out-of-state students. Some students feel that the out-of-state tuition is too high, and pass up the opportunity to attend Southern because of that.
“Lowering tuition would attract more out-of-state students to Southern instead of just Louisiana residents. If tuition wasn’t so high, more out-of-state students would probably come to school here,” said Kandice Pimpton, a sophomore from Houston majoring in marketing.
At Southern University, the current tuition rate for in-state students is $2,682 annually, while out-of-state students pay a much larger fee of $8,474.
“I am paying more money to come here than I would have had to pay if I had stayed at home. It’s not fair for out-of-state students to pay so much when residents hardly pay anything,” said Erika Dilworth, a freshman from Nashville majoring in political science.
In Texas, students attending institutions that are from neighboring states pay the same tuition as Texas residents. Louisiana officials are discussing whether or not if they should follow the model of Texas and implement that same plan.
The reason that non-Louisiana students pay out of states fees, set by the State of Louisiana, is because public institutions of higher learning operate mainly from tax dollars paid for by Louisiana residence, out of state students have not paid any taxes for the usage of the university and its’ services so an out-of-state fee is accessed .
“This new plan is still in its early stages and it is out of our hands whether it is implemented or not. If it is, students from the neighboring states will receive out-of-state tuition waivers.” said Alcorn.
With Southern University moving to selective admissions this year, enrollment has dropped.