Iowa State University’s anticipating enrollment will be down this fall. Admissions director Mark Harding says they take into account several factors to make the projection each year. The number of graduating high-school seniors, the retention rate of current ISU students and the graduating rate from the University all affect enrollment. And the number of students enrolling for the coming fall term will have significance in turn for many areas at Iowa State. Harding says everything from accommodations at residence-hall facilities to course availability — faculty and academic departments need to know how many students are coming so they can prepare enough course materials and classrooms, there are housing and auxiliary services, and it impacts the community. Early enrollment projections are that 200 fewer freshmen will enroll and 800 upperclass students won’t return to campus for the fall semester. Harding says the residence-hall system’s making adjustments, and a master plans for renovating the whole residence-hall system has been accelerated to take more “off-line” with fewer students coming to move into student housing. The decline will cost ISU an estimated six-Million dollars in tuition and fees, another reason some dorms will be closed. Harding says all the higher-education institutions in the state face the fact that there are fewer high-school students.He thinks over the next decade there will be 3000 fewer graduating high-school seniors in the state, and since the three regents institutions, the 30 private universities and fifteen community colleges don’t plan to close their doors, it’ll be a “capacity issue” for all of them — fewer students, the same number of schools. Rising tuition is another factor hurting enrollment, and he admits the violence at this year’s VEISHEA event factored into the decision by some parents and their students not to choose Iowa State. The number of students graduating from Iowa State is rising, and while that’s good it cuts into total student numbers, plus there are a number now in the military. While it’s not a huge number, he says there’s an impact from students who leave college or put off enrolling to serve in uniform. And international student attendance is down because in part of the stricter visa requirements for foreign students hoping to enter the U.S. ISU has close to 25-hundred international students, but lost about 100 since last year.
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