Ouachita enrollment up; committed to missions

LITTLE ROCK – Ouachita Baptist University is celebrating one of its largest freshman classes ever – in a year that also marks the institution’s 125th anniversary – Rex Horne, Ouachita president, reported to messages at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention Annual Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 1.

“Our enrollment this fall is 1,594,” said Horne, noting that most Arkansas preachers would say it was 1,600, ministerially speaking.

“We are up 6 percent from last year. 2010 was up 4 percent from 2009. You will find it interesting that 54 percent of our students are from Arkansas, 30 percent from Texas. Seventy-five percent of our current students are Baptists. This is very strong as you compare Ouachita with other Baptist colleges and universities around the country.”

Horne applauded Ouachita students’ involvement in missions.

“It may be service in New Orleans or overseas mission projects in South Africa, but our students are committed to Christ and the nations of the world,” he said. “We are very pleased at Ouachita that one of our graduates, Dr. Tom Elliff, is president of the International Mission Board (IMB).”

A strong indication of Ouachita’s ongoing emphasis on the Great Commission and its stewardship in the use of Cooperative Program funds, is the number of IMB missionaries who are graduates of the university.

“Of the present personnel of the IMB, only one college has more graduates serving than Ouachita,” said Horne. “To show the continuing trend, in the last five years, no college has had more graduates appointed than Ouachita.” 

Oklahoma Baptist University currently has the largest number of missionaries serving with IMB.

Closing, Horne said during a time of “shifting allegiances and dwindling support, … Arkansas Baptists can be proud of a 125-year-old university that is unapologetically Christian, proudly Baptist and whose students’ commitment to missions is unequalled.”