In the fall 2022 semester, despite seeing a decrease in overall enrollment, Langston University enrolled the largest number of honors students in the program’s history.
Seeing the new and returning students is motivating for faculty, exciting for administrators and gives the opportunity for upper class students to give back.
Kyle Gregory, the honors program coordinator, had positive things to say about the enrollment. Recruiting students to LU has been vital for the university.
“In-person recruitment beats everything,” said Gregory.
There are a little over 250 students in the Edwin P. McCabe honors program making it, according to Gregory, “The biggest honors program in Langston history.”
He believes Langston University can sell itself as long as the message of the institution gets out.
“Langston offers elite opportunities at accessible prices. Internships our students have received have included NASA internships, internships at Ivy League institutions and other elite institutions, an internship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, cancer research and limitless other opportunities … When high school students find out the opportunities that are available to them at Oklahoma’s only HBCU, many are shocked.”
In-person recruitment allowed the university to physically reach more high school students, especially at college fairs.
“In Oklahoma, they bus about 12 schools to one location. You’re able to go and hit a ton of schools that you wouldn’t have had time to hit,” Gregory said.
Tiffany Marple, a research analyst for Langston University, thinks that having everyone back on campus, in person, is a positive thing for the institution.
“I think people are less scared of Covid now. I think that as a university as a whole, we have a really good Emergency Leadership Team,” said Marple. “This year for the fall 2022 semester, we have a total of 1,903 enrolled.”
In terms of classification, sophomores outnumber juniors, seniors, and freshmen. According to Marple, there are 548 first-time freshmen, 860 sophomores, 284 juniors, 337 seniors, 88 graduate students and 41 students in the physical therapy doctorate program.
According to the 2021-2022 Langston University fact book, there were a total of 1960 students enrolled during the fall 2021 semester. 1841 students were undergraduates, 105 were graduate students and 41 students were professional students pursuing doctorate degrees.
While the total number of students at Langston University has decreased by 57 students, the overall retention rate increased by 5% from the previous year.
Terrance Woodard, a junior computer science major, thinks that enrollment benefits the university and entrepreneurs like him. Woodard runs a business named Romani Designs.
“I make clothing for students on campus and I either do custom designs or sell my own designs,” Woodard said. “The goal of it all is to use the funds as a way to give back to students and towards the end of each semester, I give care packages to students that apply for them to help them with their final exams.”
Lonnie Johnson, chair of the communication department and English department, gets motivated by seeing all the students here.
“It has a lot to do with retention… It shows me that there are a lot of people here now that are taking the next step towards graduating,” Johnson said. “The reason I got into education a long time ago … I know that having a degree can make an incredible amount of difference for any individual. The students that are here now, I know that their lives, their family’s lives, are all going to see something positive happen from them having that degree.”
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The Gazette serves as the student voice of Langston University. It is produced within the Department of Communication as a teaching tool and local news source for the campus community. The views and opinions expressed within are those of the writers whose names appear with the articles and do not necessarily represent the views of Langston University.
