After two years of increases in applications, Texas Tech administrators said the numbers are trending in the right direction.
Tech's fall 2008 population was not only the second largest in school history but also a continuation of an increase in the diversity of students.
Ethan Logan, interim managing director for undergraduate recruitment and admissions, said Tech received 13,976 applications for the fall 2007 semester and 16,413 for fall 2008.
Logan said the university is in the middle of a recruitment cycle, and he expects to have about an equal number of applicants as last year. He also said he would not be comfortable predicting total enrollment for fall 2009 because the university is about halfway through its application process.
As of Friday, Jim Burkhalter, vice president of student affairs, said Tech has received 9,331 applications for fall 2009. The goal is to reach 16,500 applications for that semester.
Tech President Guy Bailey said regaining accreditation might have some influence on the number of applicants.
"(Tech's) accreditation issues didn't have anything to do with educational quality and most people didn't make that connection," Bailey said.
Burkhalter said people were "definitely aware of us being on probation." Tech being considered for the third flagship school in Texas probably does not produce as much interest, he said, because many people do not know about it.
Bailey also said the publicity from the success of the football team definitely brought attention to Tech.
"How many people have seen that pass Graham Harrell made to Michael Crabtree?" he said.
Bailey said he would like to see a 3 to 5 percent increase in students enrolled for the fall 2009 semester.
Burkhalter said the number of inquiries - students who contact the university for information but don't necessarily apply - has increased and may be attributed to the football team's accomplishments.
Logan also said he does not know if economic influence would help or hinder the total number of applicants for fall 2009.
The Lubbock county economy is driven by agriculture, medicine and education, he said, all three of which always will be necessary to the community.
"Locally, I feel very comfortable saying that Lubbock is not adversely affected," Logan said, but added that it may be "too idealistic" to expect Lubbock county never will be affected.
Burkhalter said some in-state and out-of-state students may be influenced by the current economic situation and therefore start off at a community college.
However, Bailey said incoming freshmen from high school are not the sole focus of recruitment, and Tech has new scholarship programs for community college students with many accomplishments.
Burkhalter said the university also focuses on recruiting graduate students and transfer students and believes that retention is "probably more critical than growing the freshman class."
The student body is not only growing, but also becoming more diverse.
Logan said that the two most prominent minority groups are Hispanics and African-Americans, and 27 percent of applicants self-identified into one of those two groups.
Tech's student body becoming consistently more diverse over the past few years is a trend Special Assistant for Institutional Diversity Juan Munoz would like to continue. Munoz said he believes that with programs like Pegasus, an organization for first generation college students, and the Cross-Cultural Academic Advancement Center, Tech will continue to attract more Texan, national and international students to its campus.
"Some campuses experience decreases in diversity," he said.
Although it is part of the process, Munoz said applications and acceptance were not the biggest problems to student enrollment.
"The challenge becomes enrolling, retaining and graduating (the students who bring) diverse backgrounds and insights (to the university)," he said. "Diversity contributes to Tech's increased stature and excellence."
Since fall 2005, the black, Asian, and Hispanic populations at Tech have increased by 287, 179 and 595 students, respectively, while the white population decreased by 784 students.
"(The) increases aren't staggering and maybe aren't exactly what we would like," Munoz said, "but they're moving in the right direction. As long as you're not losing ground, you're moving in the right direction."
He said he hopes people's perception of what diversity entails changes, emphasizing that diversity is not solely ethnic background, but also culture, experiences and even economics.
To attract more diverse students, the university is holding a scholarship dinner in February called "Celebrating Diversity" which will have in attendance actor, director and producer Edward James Olmos. Munoz also proposed that the university look for more outreach activities to create a connection to Tech from other parts of the state.
"We want to attract diverse students from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio," Munoz said, but added that students from small towns like La Mesa, Midland and Odessa should not be of less importance.
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