The University of Mississippi chancellor says the school is proud of its student numbers, which are bucking the national trend of declining enrollments.
“During the recession our enrollment went up,” Dr. Dan Jones said Monday. “A lot of people can’t find jobs. They get loans and go to school. I’m not sure that’s a good individual strategy, but that’s what happens in every recession.”
Jones, the 16th chancellor of Ole Miss, visited the Commonwealth Monday and was to visit 19 papers around in the state over a few days. The school recently launched a print ad campaign to tout its enrollment and the recognition of its School of Accountancy as one of the nation’s best.
Jones said the university has grown since he became its chancellor in June 2009 and now has more than 22,000 students at all of its locations. That is the largest enrollment for any Mississippi university ever, he said.
“We’re pleased that we have students from all 50 states — two-thirds from Mississippi — and from 93 different countries,” he said. “We think that provides a nice environment for educational opportunities.”
Jones said Mississippi doesn’t have increasing numbers of high school graduates, particularly college-eligible graduates. Also, shortcomings in the state’s K-12 schools affect in-state enrollment at Ole Miss, he said.
One-third of the university’s students come from outside the state.
“Nationally, the numbers are down, and we’ve been able to stay up,” he said. “Part of that is because we have a good mix of in-state and out-of-state.”
In order to admit every “minimally qualified” student from Mississippi, the university has instituted policies designed to prevent out-of-state students from overwhelming the university, he said.
A Mississippi candidate with a good grade point average and an ACT score as low as 16 can be admitted. For most out-of-state students, an ACT score of 20 is required.
Jones said 24 percent of the university’s students are minorities and 17 percent are African-Americans.
“In the last three classes, more than 25 percent of the Mississippians in the class have been African-American. We think we’re getting our share of college-eligible African-Americans,” he said.
Jones said three factors drive the university: its academic program, its social life and its overall value compared to other universities in the region.
Jones said the university’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College has about 10 percent of the freshman class in it and two-thirds of that group is from Mississippi. The freshmen enrolled in the Honors College have an average ACT score of 30.3, he said.
“That’s a lot of smart kids who are coming to get their education at the University of Mississippi,” Jones said.
Other high achievers are enrolled at the university’s Croft Institute for International Studies, and the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, he said.
Jones said the university’s Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence is another cutting edge development.
“This is a program that is multi-disciplinary — engineering, business and accountancy,” he said.
While community colleges are training the workforce for state-based manufacturing, the center is focusing on training the next group of leaders of those industries, Jones said.
“We’re trying to not just make Ole Miss stronger but to make the state a stronger and better state,” he said. “The Center for Manufacturing Excellence is focused in that direction.”
Jones said the Honors College is also embarking on a program that will provide four full scholarships for students who choose to major in education in exchange for a five-year commitment to teach in a Mississippi public high school. The effort, funded for five years by the Hearin Foundation, is being done in conjunction with Mississippi State University.
The university’s School of Accountancy was recently ranked fourth in the nation by Public Accounting Report, a monthly professional newsletter. Jones said that is good news for the state as well as the university.
Tuition costs at the state’s eight public universities have been fairly similar, and tuition at Ole Miss is “well below market,” he said.
“I think (the state College Board) will continue to let us move towards market,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever get at the average in the foreseeable future. … We will continue to incrementally raise tuition as long as we have needs to improve our programs.”
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
