This spring, enrollment at Southeast Missouri State University increased .5 percent or by about 60 students. All accommodations, including housing, were met.

Assistant vice president for Enrollment Management and director of Admissions Dr. Deborah Below said there are a few reasons for students to enroll in the spring semester rather than in the fall.

"We have a diverse student population, and so the spring semester could be the first time an international student is able to enroll," Below said. "And we also have non-traditional students at least 21 or older who want to go to school, and then we have high school seniors who graduate early and start in the spring."

The process for enrolling is the same in the spring and fall semesters.

"The only thing that is different between fall and spring semester is in the spring we don't have the major opening weekend because it is a small group of students," Below said.

Residence Life director Bruce Skinner had no problems with housing when it came to the increase this semester.

"We had 306 students move out in December of last year and we had about 162 students enroll [for housing] in January," Skinner said. "We had 145 students leave to transfer schools, 33 for internships and 27 for graduation."

Southeast couldn't house every student who applied to live on campus during the 2011 fall semester. Skinner doesn't believe that situation affected enrollment.

"The increase this semester is not related to what happened fall semester," Skinner said. "We weren't affected negatively, and we were able to accommodate everyone who wanted to live on campus."

Skinner said he has noticed that students enrolling in the spring often already know a student at Southeast.

"When students enroll in spring, we pair them up with another new student, or usually they request a roommate because they already know someone who goes here," Skinner said.

The official enrollment statistics will be released the week of Feb. 13. The Office of Institutional Research conducts this census at the end of the fourth week of each semester.