Madeleine McCormick| News Editor

Enrollment for incoming students at Buena Vista University (BVU) is slightly higher this year, according to BVU Communication and Marketing Director Jennifer Felton.

According to Felton, the jump in BVU enrollment for freshmen, transfer and Graduate and Professional Studies (GPS) program classes may be attributed to an 18% increase in the number of visits last year. She said student visits were up from 660 visits in 2014 to 779 in 2015.

As for the size of this year’s enrollment, university officials said they couldn’t provide a concrete estimate since GPS won’t begin until mid-September. They maintained that enrollment at both the Storm Lake campus and GPS were “slightly higher.”

BVU President Fred Moore has called attention to the struggle of private colleges faced with declining enrollment caused by economic decline throughout the Midwest. Colleges are driven by student tuition and alternative auxiliary expenses such as room and board, which have caused financial stress at colleges like BVU. For example, prioritization and budget cuts were enacted in 2014 to cover costs from low student enrollment from previous years.

Vice President for Enrollment Management Mike Frantz said increasing enrollment is a priority; however, BVU strives to provide a high degree of academic quality for students and faculty.

Frantz said BVU traditionally has more GPS students than Storm Lake campus students considering the lower total cost of GPS relative to the Storm Lake campus. Enrollment at BVU’s Storm Lake campus has slid to 912 from its peak in the 1990s at about 1,200. Enrollment in GPS at several satellites across Iowa is at 1,376.

Despite struggling enrollment, BVU marketing and communications has made an effort to gather prospective students across the nation highlighting the expanding academic programs, athletics and fine arts.

The outreach to prospective students, however, is much more extensive than high school visits and college fairs. Marketing BVU has reached social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter as well as continuous improvement to the campus website.

The university offers more than an increased economic impact to Storm Lake, Frantz said. It offers “broadly titled entertainment” from athletic events to cultural and theatrical events that are often open to the public.

“I think college towns add something extra to the community that towns without a college or university don’t have,” Frantz said.

Within the already diverse community, BVU accepts many international students that “spread the Storm Lake word, as well as the BVU word” and benefit enrollment efforts, Frantz said.