(New Orleans)— Currently, pre-registration is underway at Loyola with 85% of Loyola’s undergraduate students having already pre-registered for the Spring semester. Registration continues until classes begin January 9.

“We are encouraged by the strong response from our students. We are particularly delighted that 92.3% of our seniors are returning in the Spring. “There is plenty of enthusiasm among our students to resume their Loyola education. But we will not know final enrollment numbers until our students return in January. We anticipate the number to increase during the next month,” says Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management Debbie Stieffel.

Yesterday, as all Loyola faculty/staff reported back to work, over 50 administrators met on the Loyola campus to discuss preparations for the Spring semester in a post-Katrina era. Topics discussed included information technology recovery efforts, Loyola students studying at other institutions during the fall, academic and student life calendars, housing issues, staff and faculty issues, financial issues and implications, academic initiatives, commencement plans, and renewal and rebuilding activities.

Students are able to move back into their residence halls on January 4. Student Affairs and Academic Affairs are planning an array of activities and festivities to help students re-engage and re-establish themselves with the Loyola community.

Of Loyola’s total undergraduate enrollment of 3,312, 80% of our students are attending over 400 other colleges and universities across the country this fall.

Meanwhile, Loyola’s School of Law has been operating out of facilities at the University of Houston Law Center where they have been conducting fall 2005 law classes for nearly half of its student body of 800. The law classes are being taught by Loyola law professors. This is the first time in the history of American legal education that a law school has put together a complete law school program in exile in another city following a natural disaster. Pre-registration for law school is underway and so far 82% of law students plan to return to Loyola for the Spring semester.

For interviews with Loyola University New Orleans president Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management Debbie Stieffel, or Dean of the School of Law Brian Bromberger, please call Kristine Lelong at 504-861-5883.