President Steven Leath put the spotlight on Iowa State’s growing enrollment in his address Thursday night and shared how the university plans on responding to the growth.

It was announced Wednesday that Iowa State broke its enrollment record for the seventh straight year with 36,001 students.

“Every single student here could be that one,” Leath said.

Leath said the university cares about individual student success, which shows in the enrollment numbers.

He also gave credit to recruiting, admissions, marketing and alumni for the growing number of students.

“There’s a reason students are coming here,” Leath said.

Almost 100,000 alumni live in Iowa, and Iowa State has educated more Iowans than any other institution.

“Our alumni are just as forward-thinking, just as passionate, just as caring about this university as the new generation,” Leath said.

Leath said the university provides areas of study which align and drive the economy, as well as having a proven track record of success.

Iowa State was ranked 13th by Forbes magazine as one of the top universities to work for.

“I really value our staff,” Leath said. 

He said the staff and faculty are a potent part as to why students choose and stay at Iowa State. 

Leath said the recent approval by the Board of Regents for a $100 tuition increase for in-state students is to help make the student growth more manageable.

“Access with affordability without quality is no bargain,” Leath said.

Leath said the $100 increase per in-state student will total to about $2.5 million more per year and will allow for some immediate concerns on growth to be resolved.

“I assure students we’ll use it wisely,” Leath said.

Leath said he wants the university to continue to try to lower student debt and raise scholarship funding through the Moving Students Forward program.

The program has a five-year plan to raise $150 million in new student scholarship money. Leath said they have decided this year to raise the goal to $200 million. 

With the growing enrollment, Leath was hopeful Iowa State would receive more funding from the state.

“We had a very, very challenging legislative session this year,” Leath said.

Leath and others worked to try and implement performance-based funding this past summer, which would have provided Iowa State with more funds, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Iowa State’s funding did go up, but Leath said it didn’t increase by the numbers hoped for.

Leath said plans for the next legislative session include an increase in faculty and staff salaries and a request for $8.2 million in recurring money in addition to what the university already receives.

“I think we have a strong, strong case here at Iowa State for that larger request,” Leath said.

The increase in enrollment is also affecting the teacher-to-student ratio. 

“Our student-to-faculty ratio jumped more than 46 percent,” Leath said.

That ratio went from 13-to-1 to 19-to-1. Leath said a more ideal goal would be 16-to-1. Over the past 3 years, there have been 365 faculty hired as well as 120 this year, but due to the growing enrollment the student-to-faculty ratio has not budged.

With the high enrollment, Leath says the university needs more resources. Iowa State secured $40 million from the state as well as a $20 million gift to build a new student innovation center.

Other new resources will include a more developed research park, a new 780-bed residence hall, an additional dining hall and a growing and improved Campustown. Also on the agenda is repurposing the former TV studio and communications building into more studio space for the College of Design and a 4-story addition to Bessey Hall.