There are more students graduating from Iowa State than there are incoming freshmen, creating an enrollment decline for the third year in a row.

Kathleen Jones, assistant vice president of records and registration, said although the number of new freshmen slightly increased, enrollment has declined because a record number of seniors graduated in the spring semester.

“We actually, as the year progressed, could see there were more students graduating,” she said. “It’s basically due to the graduation rates being a bit faster than they were a year ago.”

John McCarroll, executive director of university relations, said the enrollment decline also stems from lower graduating classes in Iowa’s high schools.

“When you combine large graduating classes with smaller high school classes, the effect was predictable — enrollment would be down,” he said.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, the 2005-06 high school senior class size is anticipated to decline for the fourth consecutive year.

Admissions Director Marc Harding said smaller high school graduating classes increase difficulty for attracting new students.

“While there is greater competition for students, there are fewer students,” he said.

Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance, said he had anticipated fewer students enrolling at Iowa State for the fall semester and the result was less tuition money coming in.

“In our projections for this year, we had predicted this enrollment decline,” he said.

“The short-term impact has been built into the budget planning.”

The 639-student enrollment decline creates approximately a $5 million budget disparity, Madden said. Fewer students enrolled negatively influences all university programs, he said.

“You have less students living in residence halls, less students purchasing materials and books, less student activity fees and CyRide has less revenue,” Madden said.

Although the overall enrollment has declined, McCarroll said the multicultural student levels have increased.

“Even with the decline in overall numbers, we were able to increase our minority student numbers,” he said.

Although tuition costs have increased, which also makes it harder to recruit, Harding said the university will look out of state for more students.

To recruit students, Harding said the university visits high schools and college fairs, meets with high school guidance counselors, builds contacts through alumni and advertises in all mass media.

“We need to talk about it in ways that prospective students and families understand an Iowa State education will be a great program for them,” he said.