Overall College Enrollment Down Slightly In Oklahoma

Saturday, October 6th 2007, 7:18 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Preliminary enrollment figures from the State Regents for Higher Education show Oklahoma's colleges experienced some ups and some downs this year. Overall enrollment at the state's public and private colleges dropped 0.8% while the number of first-time freshman students increased.

The University of Oklahoma saw an overall increase of 0.5% in students and an increase of 0.7% at the main campus in Norman where 25,704 students enrolled for the fall semester.

OU also reported a record 3,883 freshmen, an increase of 16.2%.

Enrollment at Oklahoma State University, though, fell 1.7% overall and was down by 1.3% at the main campus in Stillwater to 22,693.

Freshmen enrollment at OSU fell 0.8% to 3,209.

Albert Colom, OSU's vice president for enrollment management and marketing, said OSU had the same number of applications as usual, but faced ``serious competition'' from Arkansas colleges which gave scholarships to students who would not qualify for scholarships at OSU.

``We just couldn't compete in some cases,'' Colom said.

A total of 21 colleges saw an increase in enrollment while 17 experienced a decrease, according to the preliminary report.

Eastern Oklahoma State College and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma had the largest declines in overall enrollment at more than 15% each.

Connors State College had the biggest increase at more than 13%.

Overall, there were fewer students enrolled in public institutions, research universities and regional universities while community colleges experienced and increase in students.

Steve Valencia, associate vice president for university relations at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, said some students might simply prefer the smaller campus.

``We find there's a great number of students who really prefer the setting of a small university,'' he said.

``It's a place where they feel like they can get more personalized attention and where they feel they have the option to play a leadership role in campus life.