The campus also experienced a more culturally diverse enrollment in 2012, with a 24 percent increase in minority students, identified as Native Americans, Hispanic and African American. Students that year also were more geographically diverse, with increases in the number of students coming from Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, among the 81 Michigan counties, 43 states and 79 countries comprising the student body. As of 2013, enrollment increased 7 percent to 23,547 students, breaking the university’s record set in 1999 for all-time high number of incoming freshman. The university housed more than 4,000 students on campus that year, up from 3,240 in 2010 and more than they had housed since 2003. That fall, the university had more than 12,000 applications submitted. The university also saw a 28 percent increase in the number of graduating students from 2010-2013. In 2014, EMU welcomed its third largest freshman class in a decade at 2,555 enrollees, including a record number of freshmen enrolled in the Honors College at nearly 500. To help enroll (and graduate) more first-generation and low-income minority men from the university, the Men of Color Degree Completion and Retention Plans program was announced in October 2014. The goal of the program is to improve services and processes that can help minority male students graduate and prepare students to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. The university’s minority population for the 2014-2015 school year consisted of 724 Hispanic students and 3,500 African American student of the approximately 18,000 attending. Student Program Launches Under Martin’s presidency, a number of new student degrees and programs were put in place at Eastern in response to new career opportunities and technological training needs. Physician Assistant Program In 2014, a new master’s degree program for physician assistants was launched. The Master of Science program is offered through the School of Health Promotion and Human Performance in the Eastern Michigan University College of Health and Human Services. The program became one of six accredited physician’s assistant programs in Michigan. The university partnered with nearby St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor hospital to provide clinical rotations for experience with real-world scenarios. The program received 600 applications in its first year for 20 spots available. The program is scheduled to increase the number of available spots to 30 in 2015 and 40 the next year. New Journalism Program A new interdisciplinary journalism undergraduate degree was approved in 2014 for Fall 2015, combining