Preliminary UNLV spring enrollment figures indicate that FTE (full-time equivalent) enrollment increased by 5.1 percent over last spring's figure, and the student headcount has increased by 2.5 percent over last spring, UNLV President Carol C. Harter announced Monday.

Figures compiled by the Registrar's Office show an FTE student enrollment of 13,215 for spring semester 1997, compared with 12,578 for spring semester last year - an increase of 637.

The headcount figure for this spring semester, which began Jan. 13, is 18,918, up 463 from last spring semester's 18,455.

"We're extremely pleased to see that this spring's student FTE figures have continued in the upward trend that we have experienced over the past year," Harter said. This spring marks the third straight semester in which FTE has risen.

Noting that FTE enrollment represents the growing number of full-time students who are working toward undergraduate and graduate degrees at UNLV, Harter attributed the increase to the hard work of Enrollment Management Dean Juanita Fain and her staff and to the many faculty who have been willing to accept more students in their classes, teach more sections of courses, and offer more flexible class schedules, such as the Education College's computer course for student teachers that meets at 7 a.m.