The numbers are in, and enrollment is down.

NIU released enrollment numbers for the 10th day count, which includes all students currently enrolled for the Fall 2010 semester, said Brad Hoey, team leader for media relations and internal communications.

“We have seen a 2.4 percent decrease in overall enrollment compared to Fall 2009,” Hoey said.

Despite this, NIU has exceeded the official targets for enrollment, the goal having been set for 5,200, and the actual number of new students entering NIU at about 5,500, according to the NIU Today press release.

NIU has seen an increase in one classification of students coming in.

“There has been a 9.2 percent increase in the amount of transfer students enrolled at NIU,” he said.

While this increase could be attributed to a number of reasons, Hoey said the most prominent reason seems to be students opting to go to community college.

“Because of difficult economic times, some students who would have chosen to go to a four-year university in the past has been postponing to do so and choosing community college instead,” Hoey said.

The Vision 2020 Initiative, introduced in NIU President John Peters’ State of the University Address, acknowledged NIU’s need for bigger and better recruitment efforts. This also includes Peters creation of the Enrollment Management Strategic Planning Task Force one year ago.

“This group is drafting NIU’s first ever comprehensive enrollment management plan to coordinate our recruitment efforts,” Peters said in Thursday’s address.

A committee for Vision 2020 will be formed to carry out all of the goals of the initiative, enrollment being one of the examples Peters gave.

“We will try to define what NIU’s optimal enrollment should be — both in size and composition,” he said.

Competition has increased in the Northern Illinois region as far as recruitment is concerned, Hoey said.

“There is a lot more competition in the area for recruitment now,” he said. “Schools that didn’t use to recruit in this area have begun doing so; therefore NIU must do so as well.”