Southern focuses on small numbers BATON ROUGE, LA. (AP) (wrkf) - New Southern University Chancellor Kofi Lomotey is shifting his focus from hurricanes to a shrinking student body.

Southern's fall enrollment of 7,714 students is about 6 percent less than last year's 8,201 count. That's according to new numbers released Wednesday.

Southern had 9,350 students in 2004 before increased admissions standards and Hurricane Katrina.

Lomotey said his goal is to make Southern again a more "desirable destination." He cited a combination of better recruiting and retention efforts.

The freshman class of 988 students is down from 1,128 a year ago. The overall enrollment loss is both fewer new students and fewer returning students. Southern's freshman applications were up this year, but the first-year student enrollment still declined. © Copyright 2009, wrkf