ISU, UI and UNI tout diversity

Iowa State University set an enrollment record this fall, while the University of Iowa saw slight growth in both total enrollment and the number of new freshmen, officials announced Wednesday.

The University of Northern Iowa saw a slight decline in total enrollment.

ISU's fall 2011 enrollment is 29,887, a 4.2 percent increase. The UI's fall total is 30,893, a less than 1 percent increase, and UNI's enrollment is 13,168, a less than 1 percent decrease compared to last fall.

Officials with all three schools said they're happy with the growing number of minority students and international students on the campuses. The number of out-of-state students also increased at all three universities.

"We're delighted in the diversity this class has," UI Admissions Director Mike Barron said. "The goal is to make sure we reach qualified students in other states and countries, and that they know what the opportunities are for them at the University of Iowa."

At UNI, attracting more out-of-state and international students is key to boosting the bottom line, since more than 90 percent of the student body is in-state students at a time when Iowa high school graduation numbers declined, Terry Hogan, UNI vice president for student affairs, said. UNI's minority student enrollment increased 5.5 percent, to an all-time high of 7.4 percent of the student body this fall, while out-of-state enrollment increased by 2 percent, officials said. UNI President Ben Allen has said that nearly doubling out-of-state enrollment is a goal.

UNI has had a recruiter in the Chicago area for about one year and just added a new recruiter in Minneapolis. Those are two-year pilot programs that officials hope pay off in more out-of-state students.

"We made some modest progress, but it's positive progress," Hogan said.

The UI's number of freshmen international students also set a record this fall, with 484 compared to 388 last year. International students make up 10.6 percent of the first-year class. At the UI, 648 students, or 14.2 percent of the incoming class, identify as minorities, a new record for the university. Last fall, 12.6 percent of the incoming class were minority students.

The UI also set a new record for the total size of the incoming first-year class, with 4,565, eight more students than last fall. UI officials had set a five-year goal of adding 500 new students and nearly met that total all in one year in 2010, so officials this year wanted to maintain that number of incoming students.

"Because we grew so much last year, we felt comfortable in the fact that we were already at our five-year goal and we wanted to maintain that spot," Barron said.

ISU's record enrollment marks five consecutive years of enrollment growth. This year's total includes an all-time high number of new incoming freshmen and transfer students, officials said. ISU's freshmen class is 5,048, and 61.5 percent of them are Iowans.

"We're very proud of the fact that, year after year, more Iowa high school graduating seniors choose Iowa State over any other four-year college or university," ISU Admissions Director Marc Harding said in an ISU statement.

International enrollment of 3,424 also is an ISU record, up 97 students from last year. Minority student enrollment at ISU is 2,945 this fall, or 9.85 percent of the total student population.