Horn tootin'.

That trendy surge in advertising and marketing at the state's colleges and universities, which we featured in an Aug. 13 cover story, was in full effect earlier this month when the institutions had to report fall enrollment figures to the Department of Higher Education.

We were hit with a barrage of press releases from schools throughout the state touting enrollment "surges," "highest enrollment yet" stats and promises for even higher numbers as late registrations trickle in. These enrollment numbers, of course, are the telling factors behind whether or not all that ad money is actually attracting new students.

For the record, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock won the race to get out a press release, even though it was surpassed by the University of Central Arkansas in enrollment in 2006.

UCA, where President Lu Hardin fueled the aggressive college advertising engine, naturally played up the fact that it was, for the second year, No. 2 in enrollment in Arkansas with 12,500 students enrolled, which is its "largest in history," according to the release. (And we've since been told that the final enrollment figure was 12,619.)

UALR touted "steady growth" in reporting its 12,177 students, which is good enough for another third-place finish.

The University of Arkansas, obviously, is the largest in the state with 18,647 reported students enrolled. Aside from calling it a campus record for total enrollment, the UA's press release also led with the fact that an expensive ad campaign to attract minority students is working.

You'll remember that last summer we reported the UA had spent $300,000 to hire Advantage Communications Inc., the Little Rock full-service advertising and marketing firm that specializes in marketing aimed at minority audiences, to beef up that statistic.

The UA was quick to point out that it's working, reporting that "enrollment of minority students also hit an all-time high in every category," while Hispanic, American Indian and black students showed the largest percentage increases.