This week, Iowa State will play host to the state Board of Regents, who are holding their monthly meeting in Ames.

The board’s November convention began last night with a meeting of the Executive Director Search and Screen Advisory Committee.

Today, the regents will tour the campus and meet in committees.

The board meeting will begin late this afternoon and will reconvene Wednesday.

During the board meeting, the regents will look at several reports, including data on fall enrollment and student retention and graduation rates.

The Fall Enrollment Report

The fall enrollment report “is built around eight focused reports on enrollments at the regent institutions,” according to the docket.

The reports look at:

• regent enrollments compared to enrollments in other Iowa colleges and universities.

• enrollments by collegiate units.

• the quality of incoming freshmen.

• age, gender, ethnicity and disability.

• enrollments by foreign students.

• enrollments by residency.

• enrollments of transfer students.

• enrollment projections.

Regent enrollments

Students at all Iowa colleges and universities numbered 180,569 this fall, an increase of 1.3 percent from fall 1996.

Enrollment at the regent universities increased from 65,777 students in fall 1996 to 66,383 students in fall 1997, an increase of .9 percent.

ISU, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa “educate 36.7 percent of the students pursuing postsecondary education in the state of Iowa” — a higher percentage than community colleges, which comprise 33.6 percent of students, and independent four-year colleges, at 26.3 percent.

Transfer students

The three regent universities received 4,391 undergraduate transfer students this fall, most of whom came from Iowa community colleges.

Transfer students from community colleges made up 51.5 percent of all transfer students, while 31 percent came from colleges outside Iowa, 9 percent from Iowa independent four-year colleges, 7 percent transferred within the regent universities and 1 percent came from Iowa independent two-year colleges.

Incoming freshmen

The Iowa regent universities admitted 9,667 new freshmen in fall 1997.

Of these students, 74.6 percent were Iowa residents.

Incoming freshmen demonstrated a high academic ability. Of the incoming freshmen, 88 percent “graduated in the top half of their high school classes,” according to the docket.

ACT scores of the freshman class also were included in the docket.

At ISU, the average ACT score was 24.4, while the median score was 24.8.

The freshman classes of U of I and UNI also performed well on the aptitude test.

“Only two independent colleges out of 43 colleges and universities had higher ACT averages for fall 1996 Iowa resident new freshmen enrolling in their schools than U of I and ISU,” according to the docket.

The report also indicated that out-of-state students enrolling in Iowa schools perform better than Iowa high school students enrolling in colleges in other states.

Out-of-state students enrolling in Iowa public institutions average 23.5 on the ACT. Students leaving Iowa to enroll in public institutions in other states average 22.4.

Gender and ethnicity

The report documented enrollment figures for female and minority students as well.

According to the docket, “The percentage of women enrolled in the three regent universities has risen to just over 50 percent.”

Female enrollment has increased three percentage points in the last 10 years, from 47 percent in 1987 to the current 50 percent.

ISU enrolled 43.1 percent women for fall 1996.

There are 4,857 minority students enrolled at regent universities this fall, comprising 7.3 percent of all students.

While this figure is 43 students less than last year’s amount, it is a 63 percent increase from 1987, when 2,980 minority students were enrolled.

Graduation and student retention rates

The report on graduation and student retention rates focuses on the length of time needed for students to graduate.

For the ISU entering class of 1991, .9 percent of students graduated in three years, 19.7 percent graduated in four years, 31.3 percent graduated in five years, 8.2 percent graduated in six years and 3.8 percent are still enrolled.

There were 36.1 percent of students leaving ISU before graduating.

The report also looks at six-year graduation rates, which is the percentage of all students enrolling in one year who graduate within six years.

The six-year graduation rate at ISU was 60 percent for the entering class of 1990.

Compared to nine other land-grant universities, ISU ranked seventh, ahead of the University of Arizona, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Ohio State University.

Other Business

The docket for the meeting also includes other issues important to ISU.

These include establishing of a new center called the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, receiving reports on deferred maintenance, fire and environmental safety and fringe benefits and approval of the purchase of a video board for Hilton Coliseum.