“The latest rankings from Diverse: Issues in Higher
Education again show that Georgia State is indeed a place where all students
succeed,” GSU President Mark Becker said. “We are extremely gratified to see
our programs working and our students flourishing.”
GSU in downtown Atlanta had 30,606 students during Spring
2012. A total of 10,484, or 34.3 percent
of the student body, were African Americans.
FAMU held the top overall spot in graduating blacks with
baccalaureate degrees for 12 years from 1995 until 2007. In 2008 and 2009, FAMU
was still number one among not-for-profit colleges and universities.
The Class of 2008 was large because it was recruited by
former President Frederick S. Humphries. The Class of 2009 was recruited by
former President Fred Gainous. With the exception of the focus on National
Achievement Scholars, Gainous followed Humphries’ example in building
enrollment.
The enrollment numbers for the Class of 2010 recruited by
Gainous were not quite enough to edge out NCA&T.
FAMU could fall even further behind over the next few years.
On September 28, 2004, Gainous was fired. He was replaced in January by
then-Interim President Castell Bryant, who tore the recruitment program (and
just about everything else) to shreds and refused to honor many of the student
scholarship offers that Gainous made.
The downward slide in FAMU's fall semester "first time
in college" (FTIC) numbers continued until President James H. Ammons rebuilt the Humphries
recruitment program in 2007-2008. FAMU had fewer FTIC freshman during Fall 2011
partially because the university started requiring new students admitted through the
profile admissions process to enroll during the summer semester.
2005: 1,478 (Class of 2011)
2006: 1,458 (Class of 2012)
2007: 1,575 (Class of 2013)
2008: 1,820 (Class of 2014)
2009: 2,045 (Class of 2015)
2010: 2,201 (Class of 2016)
2011: 1,548 (Class of 2017)
Source: FAMU Fact Books, 2011-2012, 2010-2011, 2009-2010.
The first class that Ammons recruited will not graduate
until Spring 2015. FAMU will have a good chance of being the number one not-for-profit
producer of blacks with baccalaureate degrees by that year.