The Aerie, Yearbook of the University of North Texas, 1990 Page: 291

                                
NT SURPASSES TEXAS TECH

i NT     reached an all-time
high enrollment and sur-
passed Texas Tech University for the
fall 1989 semester. The enrollment
figures placed UNT as the state's
fourth largest school, according to
preliminary enrollment figures. UNT
had 26,743 students to Texas Tech's
25,086 students.
"Our increase over the years re-
flects the work done by the adminis-
tration of this university," stated Reg-
istrarJoneel Harris. "There are stron-
ger programs and a higher retention
rate." NT President Al Hurley said

So that he may park closer to campus,
Vernard Hampton purchases a parking
permit during registration. Photo by
Daniel Gibson

the increase illustrated a much greater
awareness of the university. "The in-
crease reflects the advantage of our
location. Also, by awareness, I mean
that there is a much wider under-
standing of the quality and number of
programs offered here.
At the end of fall late registration,
27,013 students had registered but
Harris expected this number to de-
crease slightly.
In the past decade, growth at NT
had exceeded 43 percent, from 1700
in 1980 to the present numbers. In fall
1988 the official 12th class day enroll-
ment was 24,498, showing a 9.7 per-
cent increase that put NT past UT-
Arlington to become the fifth largest
university in Texas.

Hurley said one reason for NT's
dramatic increase is the school's re-
tention rate. "This is a direct reflec-
tion of the increasing standards," he
said. "And I fully expect that there
will be other efforts to increase the
standards in years to follow, which
will eventually show a considerable
slow down of growth, such as that
which UT-Austin and A&M have
seen."
The graduate students comprised
the largest group on campus at 24.8
percent. The enrollment breakdown
was: Seniors 21.4 percent, Juniors 17
percent, Sophomores 16.5 percent
and Freshmen 19.8 percent. The num-
ber of transfer students was 4,499, a
7.7 percent increase over last year.

Freshmen
Portraits

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