After enrollment surge, Leath pleased by slower rate of growth at ISU

JOHNSTON - Iowa State University is not expecting to match the competition in the race to increase in-state enrollment next year and that doesn't concern President Steven Leath.

ISU in-state applications are up about 5.5 percent - half the growth the University of Iowa reported earlier this week - while the admission of Iowa residents is about 10 percent higher than a year ago, he said.

'That's probably a good number for us (because) as you know we've grown hugely the last few years,” Leath said Friday during taping of Iowa Public Television's Iowa Press. The public affairs program can be seen at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and noon Sundays on IPTV, 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV World and episodes are available at www.IPTV.org.

UI reported its first-year applications from Iowa residents as of late November are 10.8 percent higher than a year ago and admissions are up 13 percent. The University of Northern Iowa reported a 31 percent increase and admissions are 28 percent ahead of a year.

He expects UI and UNI to be continue to be more aggressive in recruiting Iowa students because of the Board of Regents is changing its funding practices to reward the universities for in-state enrollment.

Leath, who is closing in on three years as president of the Ames university, wants to see ISU continue to grow, 'but if we slow our rate of growth some it would probably be best for everybody.”

Not only has ISU become the largest of the three state universities with 34.732 students, but its growth has been in areas that strain its resources for 'high-quality laboratory space.” About 70 percent of enrollment growth has been in agriculture and engineering or, put another way, 55 percent of the growth has been in the biological sciences. To accommodate that, ISU hired 105 tenure-track faculty last year and plans to hire another 130 this year.

'No other university I know of in the country is hiring like that,” he said, but it's necessary to maintain its desired the student-teacher ratio.

So ISU's growth will be limited by resources, Leath said.

'We can provide access, we can provide affordability, but access and affordability without quality is a bad deal for our students,” he said. 'And the quality takes money, so the size that we can get to is highly dependent on the resources, quite frankly.”

To maximize its resources, Leath said ISU will continue to build on its strengths, such as ag and engineering, while looking for savings in non-academic areas. He's also interested in the regents universities sharing 'non-hands-on” classes via the Internet as a way to reduce costs and avoid duplication.

He also reported ISU has reached $107 million in two years toward a five-year goal of raising $150 million private scholarship funds.

Leath expressed thanks to Gov. Terry Branstad and the Iowa Legislature for their support that has allowed the regents to freeze tuition for a third year in a row.

The freeze will cost ISU more than $2 million in the coming year, Leath said, and increase the need for the Legislature to approve the regents' performance-based funding plan. It calls for 35 percent of the universities' money to be based on metrics such as student progress toward degrees, graduation, access and sponsored research.

'We go back to the quality issue again: How do we provide quality with all the growth we have had if our budget doesn't increase?” Leath said.