More minority students are coming to Iowa State from within the United States than abroad.

Although minority enrollment is up at Iowa State for the 2003—2004 academic year, there are fewer international undergraduate students than in 2002—2003, according to data released in a report from the Office of the Registrar last week.

A goal has been set by the Iowa Board of Regents to increase the percentage of minorities on campus to 8.5 percent.

“We’ve gone up 0.3 percent on total minority students on campus,” said Kathy Jones, registrar.

Total minority enrollment is 2,082 or 7.6 percent of the total student population. This number is up from 2,039 minority students last year.

The number of new international students is down 33 percent, while the total number is down 17 percent from last year.

Dennis Peterson, director of international education services, said international student rates might be down because of the high cost of tuition and the fact that there are more restrictions on getting visas due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“It’s a lot more competitive today,” Peterson said. “They can choose to go more places as things get more complicated in the U.S.”

Peterson said many international students can choose Britain, Australia or New Zealand as alternative options to America if they are interested in learning English. He said he considers this a big educational, cultural and economic loss to the Ames community.

Peterson said about $60 million comes to the Ames community from international students, and international students are the top fifth or sixth means of income generation in the United States. Some of the money from international students goes to pay the university for tuition, but the rest of the money goes to such things as cars and food, he said.

“Non-residents are paying for more than what it costs to educate them,” Peterson said.

Iowa State is working to attract more international students to Iowa State, officials said.

Patricia Parker, assistant director of admissions, said an international ISU recruiter will be sent out this month to several countries such as India, Vietnam and Singapore; there will also be two other sets of trips this year with over a dozen different countries visited. Parker said she and other recruiters speak about Iowa State to prospective international students at high schools, university fairs and other schools.

ISU publications and informational letters are also sent abroad to raise awareness, and a virtual college fair is being set up on the Internet for prospective international students to visit and learn more, she said.

Parker added international students are usually good students who contribute to Ames.

“In Iowa we’re a little isolated, so it helps to get to know them,” Parker said.

International ambassador Cesar Vasquez, senior in finance, came to Ames in 2001 from Peru.

Vasquez said he considers Iowa State a good place to study and would recommend other international students come here.

“It’s too bad that [international student numbers have] been decreased,” Vasquez said. “I hope more international students can come.”

Vasquez said he has friends interested in coming to the United States to study, but they are unable to because of economic reasons.

The tuition rate is the same for international students as out of state students. The out of state tuition rate recently increased to $13,684 a semester for non-residents.