By AMBER POMPA
Commerce Journal
COMMERCE —
Texas A&M University-Commerce registered its 10,000th student on August 20 at 2:38 p.m., making this fall’s enrollment one of the largest in school history.
As of 3:00 p.m., university enrollment was up to 10,031 students with more students expected prior to the first day of class on August 30.
“I am so proud of the time and energy the university community has put towards recruitment and retention efforts this year,” said Dr. Mary Hendrix, vice president of student access and success. “The excitement around this fall’s enrollment has been mounting up to this afternoon’s announcement. Now it’s time to celebrate.”
Last year’s fall enrollment totaled a mere 9,075.
“We think the relationship and partnerships with our public school and community college partners is making the difference, as well as our focus on providing one-stop student services to assist students,” said Hendrix.
A variety of degrees are sought by those enrolling at A&M-Commerce, however, according to Hendrix, the school has seen an obvious increase in the business degree programs, as well as the online courses offered by the school.
“A lot of our transfer students are looking for online or evening courses,” she said. “I think that can be attributed to the fact that more of our students work and/or care for family members. Increases at the junior, senior and graduate levels do reflect enrollment in online courses and those are always the first classes to become full. Freshman enrollment reflects the highest increase at 19.81 percent as of Sunday evening, though the freshman are not enrolled in online courses.”
University President Dr. Dan R. Jones is pleased with the jump in enrollment.
“My heartfelt congratulations go out to Dr. Hendrix and the entire student access and success team. This milestone in our university’s history has been a true collaboration of efforts, and is something all of our students, faculty, staff and alumni can be proud of.”
For more information on A&M-Commerce, or to register for classes, visit www.tamu-commerce.edu or call 903-886-5000.
