New LSUE chancellor: Enrollment top priority

EUNICE -- Barely a month into her new job as LSUE chancellor, Kimberly “Kim” Russell says her job is to turnaround a school where enrollment has slumped.
“LSUE has been on the decline since about 2010,” she said.
“That’s not unusual for most community colleges,” she added.
The fall enrollment numbers came in at 2,509 students, down 8.4 percent from year ago and 27 percent down from 2010 when there were 3,431 students.
“Next September I would like enrollment up at at least 10 percent,” Russell said. “I would like to see us have developed at least five new programs and really just see a turnaround.”
Russell began her job on Sept. 1 and says she is still gathering information, including where those missing students went.
Community college enrollment usually increases when the economy is bad, she said.
“At about 2011, we began emerging from the recession,” she said. That meant students left school and returned to work, she said.
“Over the last five or six years LSUE has been in decline in enrollment,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve really kept up with what the needs are in our community and in our region. I think that’s what we are going to address.”
One of LSUE’s strengths is students can transfer credits to four-year colleges in the state, including Louisiana State University.
LSUE has been strong in sciences, nursing and health sciences, she said. “But there is so much room for LSUE to expand in workforce related areas.”
In Louisiana, 59 percent of students leaving high school continue their education, but nationally the average is 65 to 66 percent, she said.
“We have work to do here in Louisiana, in particular in south Louisiana,” she said. In some cases only 45 percent of the state’s high school graduates continue their education at two- or four-year institutions, she said.
Russell plans take LSUE’s story to high schools to meet principals, counselors and students.
“Today students regardless of what they want to do for a career are going to need some type of post-secondary training ...,” she said.
“This is a great place to begin,” she said. “We just really have to remind the community that we are here and really begin to offer some of those two year or certificate programs to get students out into the workforce quicker or off alternative pathways.”