NIU’s spring undergraduate enrollment has fallen 1,647 students since the fall semester. Spring 2012 enrollment currently sits at 15,659.

NIU President John Peters said spring enrollment is always smaller than fall enrollment, and the decrease was less than the university expected. According to the NIU data book and associate vice president for enrollment management Katherine McCarthy, the university lost 1,524 undergraduate students between the fall 2010 and spring 2011 semesters; undergraduate enrollment fell by 1,591 students between the fall 2009 and spring 2010 semesters.

“Reaching the Vision 2020 goals is important for the university, and we are moving forward in proactive and aggressive ways to recruit and enroll new undergraduates,” McCarthy said in an email. “The Vision 2020 goals are ambitious and competition for new students is fierce.”

Peters said he currently did not know if NIU would meet its Vision 2020 enrollment goal for the fall 2012 semester, but his own goal is to see an increase from the fall 2011 semester to the fall 2012 semester.

McCarthy said NIU is communicating with prospective students and families through Facebook, additional mailings, and “new messages across a variety of vehicles” to attract and retain students.

Peters said NIU’s new residence hall, which is set to open for the fall 2012 semester, has attracted potential students, as has an increase in scholarship funds. He said applications and admittances for the fall 2012 semester are “looking strong.”