While colleges and universities across the United States continue to grapple with enrollment declines and financial instability, Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA) has announced a record-breaking 7,684 undergraduate students enrolled for Fall 2025, achieving 154% its original goal of 5,000 students by 2025.
This milestone marks the culmination of a six-year transformation. In 2019, when Chancellor Paul Coreil returned to lead LSUA, the institution set what many saw as an ambitious target: to grow from 3,285 students to 5,000 by Fall 2025. Instead, LSUA crossed that threshold two years early with 5,104 students in Fall 2023, then surged to 6,815 students in Fall 2024—a 33.5% year-over-year jump, the largest in school history. Now, just one year later, the campus has added another 869 students, representing a 12.8% increase over last fall and a 134% increase overall since setting their goal in 2019.
Abbey Bain, LSUA Vice Chancellor for Student Engagement exclaimed, “We are thrilled to welcome almost 7,700 students to LSUA this fall! This milestone reflects the incredible momentum and excitement surrounding our university. With a record-breaking freshman class that is almost 20% larger than last year’s, it’s clear that students want to be part of the Generals family. As one of the fastest-growing university in the south, LSUA continues to rise to the challenge: expanding opportunities, enhancing student life, and preparing the next generation of leaders for success.”
LSUA is Louisiana’s singular undergraduate-only public institution. Their enrollment growth has been fueled by both a surge in online students and a strengthening on-campus experience. On-campus enrollment reached 3,035 students, up 11.6% from Fall 2024, while online enrollment jumped 38.3% in a single year, adding 1,286 students. Since 2019, online enrollment has exploded by 567% and now accounts for nearly 60% of LSUA’s total enrollment, largely comprised of local, non-traditional students balancing coursework with careers and families.
The university is also celebrating its largest freshman class since becoming a four-year institution in 2001, enrolling 691 full-time first-year students, an 18.9% increase from last fall and a 58.5% increase since 2019.
“The nearly 20% growth in our on-campus first-year student population is particularly exciting,” said Shelly Gill, Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management. “It shows that more students are choosing to make LSUA their home. We are committed to providing a high-quality education and a vibrant campus community, and these numbers reflect that our efforts are resonating with prospective students and their families.”
LSUA’s ascent stands out sharply against a national backdrop marked by widespread enrollment contraction. According to the Hechinger Report, U.S. colleges and universities are now closing at an alarming rate of about one per week, up from just over two per month in the previous year. Nearly 10% of four-year institutions are considered in financial peril, and experts warn that the wave of closures and mergers could accelerate if the imbalance between institutional capacity and student demand persists.
These pressures have been particularly acute for small regional colleges, which often serve as critical educational and economic anchors in their communities. By contrast, LSUA has positioned itself as an outlier—leveraging affordable tuition, career-aligned programs, and strong local partnerships to attract students at a time when many peers are shrinking. In fact, to meet enrollment demands, LSUA has created and hired more than 100 new positions over the last 18 months.
At the same time, public sentiment toward higher education may be rebounding. A 2025 Gallup poll found that 42% of Americans now say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in colleges and universities, up from 36% in 2023 and 2024. Those expressing “very little” or no confidence dropped from 32% a year ago to 23% today, marking the first measurable increase in public trust in over a decade.
At a recent on-campus event, LSU Interim President Matt Lee echoed this sentiment stating, “Public confidence in higher education is beginning to rebound, and that’s because of institutions like LSUA that are deeply embedded in their communities and delivering on their mission. Students vote with their feet and parents vote with their pocketbooks—and they’re choosing LSUA because it delivers excellence.”
LSUA’s strategy is closely aligned with what students say they want from higher education: clear workforce pathways, personal attention from faculty and staff, and affordability. These factors have become increasingly critical as families scrutinize the return on investment of a college degree.
