West Virginia University is experiencing another record-breaking enrollment year.

Minority citizen, transfer, international and overall enrollment are all the highest they have ever been on WVU’s main campus in Morgantown.

Across all of WVU’s campuses, freshman and overall enrollment also hit an all-time high. Total full-time enrollment across all campuses reached 32,251 students for the fall 2010 semester, up 399 students or 1 percent from last year.

Freshman enrollment across all campuses reached 6,004 students, up 401 students or 7 percent from 2009.

Overall enrollment for WVU’s main campus for the fall 2010 semester is 29,306, up from 28,898 in 2009, a 1 percent increase. Freshmen enrollment is the second largest in the school’s history. It increased 10 percent to 5,034, up from 4,589 in 2009.

Minority citizen enrollment represents 12.2 percent of the freshmen class, up from 9.6 percent in 2009. Overall minority citizen students represent 9.9 percent of the student population, up from 9 percent in 2009.

Freshmen international enrollment increased 44 percent to 65 students. Overall international enrollment stands at 1,403, an increase of 66 students or 4.9 percent since 2009. This equals the highest international enrollment record that was set in fall 2003.

WVU has received its largest class of transfer students at 1,104, an increase of 15 percent from 2009.

“It is exciting that we have set another enrollment record this year,” said Brenda Thompson, associate vice president for enrollment management. “Students and their families continue to select West Virginia University as their first choice for its strong academic programs, wide array of opportunities and Mountaineer spirit.”

In recent years WVU has increased efforts to recruit minority students. It is Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment Elissa Evans’ job to visit and speak with minority students interested in attending WVU.

“I collaborate a lot with the other folks in the office. We talk a lot about the questions that they might get when they are on the road from students asking about diversity at WVU,” she said.

WVU has worked to increase the amount of diversity-related programming to students, she noted.

Initiatives like the Center for Black Culture and Research’s Academic STARS program, a program for African-American freshmen designed to help students build a solid academic foundation, develop self-awareness and enhance leadership; Diversity Week, a celebration of cultures using music, lectures, workshops and festivals held each year; and the PASSkey mentoring program, a freshmen orientation class that helps African-American students successfully tradition to college life, have helped to attract and retain students of color, Evans said.

“Research shows there are a lot of great benefits to having a diverse campus,” Evans said. “We are preparing students to go out into the working world and certainly that world is getting more and more diverse. We have a responsibility to expose students to diversity, to help improve cross-cultural communication and relationships, foster personal growth and promote an inclusive campus climate.”

For more information about enrollment at WVU, visit the Planning and Treasury Operations website at http://planning.wvu.edu/institutional_research/institutional_reports .

Individual Campus Enrollments

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CONTACT: Brenda Thompson, Enrollment Management
304-293-3837, Brenda.Thompson@mail.wvu.edu

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