A record number of students are enrolled at Iowa’s three state universities this spring, but Iowa State’s spring enrollment decreased slightly, according to the Iowa Board of Regents.

Total spring 2003 enrollment at Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa rose to an all-time spring-semester high of 67,040 students, an increase of 525 from the spring 2002 enrollment of 66,515.

According to the report released earlier this month, spring head count enrollment at Iowa State declined a slight 0.1 percent, or 12 students, to 25,863 students from last spring’s 25,875. Head count, as defined in the report, counts all enrolled students equally regardless of course load.

John McCarroll, director of university relations, said the decrease is not significant.

“I don’t believe a decline of one tenth of 1 percent is a cause for particular concern,” McCarroll said. “We had a larger December 2002 graduation, which accounts for one change. Retention is an important thing, but you’re always going to see some change in the spring semester because of graduation in December.”

Registrar Kathy Jones said the number of graduating students and the number of students admitted in the fall are the primary reasons for the small decrease in enrollment this spring.

“Part of [the decrease] had to do with graduation in the fall, and the other part was the number of students for the fall and this spring,” Jones said. “There had been an administrative decision to have a smaller entering class this fall, which we were successful in doing.”

Marc Harding, director of admissions, said difficulty in spring recruitment of high school students could play a role in the decrease as well.

“Most high school students are going to come in the summer or the fall,” he said. “We can’t really recruit [high school students] for the spring.”

Harding said the biggest change in undergraduate enrollment came in the College of Agriculture. The college’s enrollment declined by 221 students from last spring’s 2,624 to this spring’s 2,403.

Spring enrollment at the University of Iowa contributed to the total increase across the state’s three public universities. The school reported 28,160 students in 2003 versus 27,439 in 2002; or an increase of 721 students from last spring.

Spring enrollment at the University of Northern Iowa decreased 1.4 percent to 13,017, as opposed to last spring’s 13,201.

According to the report, this spring’s students include a record 3,444 individuals enrolled in off-campus courses and programs offered by the three public universities, a 17.5 percent jump from a year ago.

Of those students, 66 percent are enrolled in graduate or professional level studies.

Graduate student enrollment rose at all three universities to 11,374 students, up 2.7 percent from last spring’s 11,073 students. At Iowa State, graduate enrollment leapt 5.4 percent to 4,407 from 4,182 last spring. At the University of Iowa, the total increased 1.5 percent to 5,212 this spring from 5,137 in 2002. The University of Northern Iowa reported graduate enrollment of 1,755, up from one student a year ago, according to the report.