Eastern Michigan University posted its seventh straight semester of growth in student credit hours, but fell short of its goal for the year.

According to numbers released Tuesday, student credit hours grew by 2.7 percent. That’s less than the 3.4 percent goal included in the university's budget for this fiscal year.

John Lumm, EMU's chief financial officer, said that if the summer credit hours are factored in, student credit hours are up 2.9 percent for the first half of the fiscal year. That's still below the budget goal, he noted.

The enrollment shortfall from the budgeted number means a projected shortfall of between $1 million and $1.5 million.

"We believe we can deal with that," Lumm told the regents this afternoon. "It's not a massive challenge in the grand scheme of things that will require draconian changes."

A straight head count of students shows an increase of 2.8 percent this school year. This represents an overall year-to-year increase of 644 students to a new total enrollment of 23,503.

That gets EMU most of the way back to its peak enrollment, which it hit in 2003-04.

"In the last two years, we will have recovered two-thirds of the decline," Lumm said. "That certainly does put a smile on your face."

That’s the second straight year of growth for the university. However, this year’s enrollment increase was smaller than last year, which saw a gain of 4.25 percent.

The most significant enrollment growth this year came from transfer students, whose numbers increased 11.3 percent, and from returning undergraduate students, whose enrollment grew by 6.4 percent, a press release issued by EMU said.

Retention of first-year students increased significantly, with 77 percent of freshmen returning for a second year, compared to 72 percent for the 2008 entering freshmen class. This is the highest retention rate of first-year students recorded at Eastern since it began tracking the data in 1992, according to the university.

“The increase in enrollment indicates the appeal of our academic programs and outstanding faculty, as well as the unprecedented investment in 46 new faculty and $195 million in new construction, renovation and upgrades in student-focused facilities,” President Susan Martin said in the release.

The university heavily marketed a zero percent increase in tuition, fees and room and board for this school year.

Martin said in the release that’s she not worried about not making the goals.

“Targets are established to provide an objective to reach,” said Martin. “We were aggressive in our plan when we announced the ‘0-0-0’ initiative. We knew it would be a challenging budget and we are working hard through cost containment to keep it balanced.

“We are satisfied that our efforts to maintain low tuition, room and board rates was the right thing to do, and helped open the university to more students who might not be able to attend. Our alumni and friends take great pride in Easter’s leadership to keep college affordable in these trying times.”

David Jesse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.