The Jaguar stirs
Enrollment has been growing at Southern, reversing a decline that threatened the university. New housing will be built soon.
Southern University is building more on-campus housing because more students are showing up.
Why it matters: LSU is already a flywheel for the Baton Rouge economy. Southern’s growth gives North Baton Rouge more of that same energy: students, jobs, spending, construction and the chance to keep more young people here after they graduate.
Together, LSU and Southern give the parish a larger opportunity: educate more people, then persuade some of them to stay and build lives here.
The details: Southern recently cut the ribbon on two new residential buildings totaling 850 beds.
One building is aimed at first- and second-year students. The other offers more apartment-style housing for upperclassmen and graduate students.
The Louisiana Public Facilities Authority played a central role in financing the project.
The bigger picture: Southern’s Baton Rouge campus spent years fighting enrollment decline. Then, about a decade ago, the university got more aggressive: more recruiters, more marketing and more alumni outreach.
It worked.
By the numbers: Southern’s Baton Rouge campus has added nearly 2,400 students over 10 years, with much of the growth occurring after 2020, per Southern University board documents.
- Southern enrollment in fall 1995: 10,359, a high point.
- Low point: 6,408 in 2016.
- Enrollment in 2025: 8,908.
The bottom line: Southern’s growth is good for North Baton Rouge and good for the parish. That happened because leaders implemented an aggressive and smart strategy to reverse a decline that seemed likely to render the university irrelevant.
