Fort Valley State sees growth in enrollment

Fort Valley State confirmed its first enrollment increase in four years recently, reversing a trend of double-digit decreases.

The public university has an enrollment of 2,685, which reflects 3.9-percent growth from the fall 2014 count of 2,594.

"The increase on first glance may not seem like a large percentage, but it reflects all the hard work undertaken by everyone at FVSU to reverse a downward trend," interim President Jessica Bailey said in a release.

The increase marked the first positive enrollment change since a 4.5-percent uptick in 2011 over the 2010 total. Since then, the university has seen drops of 8.4 percent, 10.9 percent and 18.4 percent as the enrollment fell from 3,896 in 2011 to 2,594 in 2014.

This year's growth was part of an upward trajectory statewide, as the University System of Georgia enrolled 318,164 students this fall, a 1.7 percent increase over 2014's number.

"We are encouraged by the year over year increase in our fall enrollment, but this is just the beginning and we still have work ahead of us to continually increase the number of Georgians with college degrees," said Chancellor Hank Huckaby.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 2:18 PM.