After UNI saw a slight enrollment increase of 53 students in the 2015 fall semester, the university appears to be on track to continue this trend.

According to Matthew Kroeger, associate vice president for enrollment management, this year’s incoming freshman class consists of nearly 2000 students, which would mark a 4.38 percent increase compared to last year.

Kroeger credited this achievement as a combined effort among faculty and staff from all academic areas.

“We have been doing a lot of things to recruit new students and many people across campus have been involved, including faculty and staff from all academic areas,” Kroeger said. “We have increased our communication to prospective and admitted students, encouraged more students to visit campus – which they have – and have been more aggressive in telling the UNI story to more folks.”

Kroeger also stressed that President Ruud’s recent departure has not affected UNI’s enrollment in any way.

The official census declaration will not be released until the 10th day of class registration as some students may register late. Both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have also made similar statements about prospective increases for incoming students this fall semester.

The university has taken a number of efforts to welcome new students this semester. Various booths and stalls have been set up up across campus to assist freshmen, and a number of introductory activities have been held to help acclimate incoming students to the UNI environment.

Danusha Manohar, a graduate student from Malaysia and an active member of UNI’s Global Success Program for international students, said she experienced firsthand the diversity initiatives at UNI.

“I built connections with many of the incoming students,” Manohar said. “Making those connections and being a familiar face for those students has been an amazing experience which [is] what makes UNI truly a place where ‘you and I’ belong.”

Although international students only compromised 5.14 percent of UNI’s 11,981 students last year, such programs have helped attract more international students to the university.

According to Kroeger, the most popular majors amongst freshmen last fall were: elementary education, pre-business, psychology, accounting and biology; still others entered UNI as a deciding major. Freshmen’s motives in choosing UNI varied from campus life to renowned programs of their chosen discipline.

One such student is freshman accounting major Erika Nyekazi-Wami, who said her love for business led her to choose UNI.

“I want to know about business to the fullest,” Nyekazi-Wami said. “You know, UNI is one of the best business schools.”

While UNI has succeeded in bringing new students to campus, the university has also experienced moderate success with retaining these students. In the last couple of years, the first-to-second year retention rate for new full time freshmen has fluctuated between 80.1 percent to 84.7 percent. According to Kroeger, this year there is an expected rise in the retention rate from last year, which was 80.1 percent.

Emily Shinkle, junior elementary education major, explained why she first chose to come to UNI and why she has chosen to stay here.

“I came to UNI in fall 2014 and instantly fell in love with it,” Shinkle said. “What attracted me to UNI was its music program and general positive feeling. The thought of leaving UNI never crossed my mind, as this place always felt right [for] me.”