ISU officials are recording an increase in the number of new freshmen for the third year in a row.

On the eve of a new school year, university officials are pointing to moderate increases in student numbers, highlighting efforts to stabilize university enrollment.

At Iowa State, the number of first-time, first-year students enrolling for the start of classes Monday is projected to increase anywhere between 3,900 and 4,000.

This is up 130 to 230 from last year’s 3,769.

Although enrollment numbers will not be official until 10 days into the semester, Iowa State’s Office of Admissions is expecting an increase of about 150 freshmen.

“We’re going in the right direction,” said Marc Harding, ISU director of admissions.

Declining enrollment has been a recurring issue for the university in recent years.

Last fall, ISU enrollment was 5 percent higher than it was 10 years ago.

Enrollment has steadily declined since 2002 – enrolling 639 fewer students than in 2004.

The University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa also saw an overall drop in enrollment last fall.

Between 2000 and 2002, Iowa State enrolled record-sized classes, witnessing the state’s largest freshmen class in 2001 at 4,654.

This beat Iowa’s projection of 4,300 freshman students for the year.

Those classes have graduated in the last two years, leaving a large void to be filled by new students.

The increase, however, comes at a time when high school graduation rates and enrollment numbers continue to decline across the state.

“There’s a flat graduation rate in the state for high school students,” Harding said. “We don’t have a surging pool of students to draw from. Iowa’s population growth is nonexistent.”

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy referenced the declining number of enrolled Iowa high-school graduates in his fall 2005 Convocation Speech.

He outlined the university’s approach to stabilize student numbers.

“It means that our natural recruiting pool here in Iowa is shrinking,” Geoffroy said.

Iowa State currently enrolls more Iowa high school graduates than any other university in the state.

Because of the lowered in-state graduation rates, however, the university has begun to rely more heavily on out-of-state recruitment.

“We have to be creative and aggressive in marketing the university to out-of-state students,” Harding said. “Without out-of-state students, our overall enrollment would decline. We need geographic diversity here on campus.”

Iowa State hired a full-time recruiter last spring to be based in Chicago.

The Iowa State Alumni Association also beefed up its out-of-state alumni networks, seeking its assistance to recruit students by scheduling more alumni events and creating localized groupings of alumni in various states.

The university also unleashed a new marketing campaign in February.

The “Choose Your Adventure” campaign uses print and TV advertising, along with a new promotional Web site under the same slogan.

ISU admissions officials said they’ve seen an increase in out-of-state applications for new students from these efforts.

“The fact that enrollment is going up and people are willing to pay increasing costs speaks to the value of Iowa State,” Harding said.

Out-of-state students represent a little more than a quarter of new students for the fall.

Even with moderate gains in the number of new freshmen, overall enrollment is again projected to decrease for the fourth year in a row.

The entire Midwest is seeing fewer and fewer graduating high school seniors.

This is leaving a smaller pool of eligible students to chose from – in-state as well as out of state.

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education projects Iowa to lose 5 percent in the number of high-school graduates from the 2005-06 through 2015-16 school years.

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska and North and South Dakota are also projected to have a smaller number of graduating students.

The only state in the area projected to increase its high school graduation rate in the next 10 years is Illinois, by 1 percent.

“Everyone is in there trying to get that growth,” Harding said.

He added that some surrounding states have begun to offer discounted tuition to out-of-state students.

Last year Wisconsin created the Tri-State Initiative, which allows eligible Iowa and Illinois students to pay Wisconsin resident tuition and fees plus a $4,000 annual premium.

“We are sensitive to the fact that states around us are offering heavy discounts,” Harding said, alluding to Iowa State’s possible consideration of providing additional financial incentives to out-of-state students.

“Cost is a decision driver, and we are paying attention to the fact that students and families are making big decisions about college and very big investments of money,” he said.

Resident tuition at Iowa State has increased more than 87 percent since the 2000-01 school year, according to ISU and Board of Regents documents.