DeKALB | NIU is heading north — and Southern Illinois University south — when it comes to student enrollment.

Officials at SIU’s flagship campus in Carbondale told The Associated Press the school’s admissions levels will slide for the spring semester. SIU reported a 2 percent drop in enrollment — one of the biggest decreases the campus has experienced in recent years.

NIU officials aren’t scared of the same thing happening in DeKalb. NIU has experienced an 8.4 percent growth rate in the last five years. SIU’s student population has stalled around 21,000 since 1996 and enrollment has declined each year since 2004.

Fifteen years ago, NIU and SIU’s student body counts were virtually equal, but the Carbondale campus held a slight edge. In 1992, NIU’s population was 24,052 and SIU’s was 24,869, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

“We’re the only public university in the state losing students,” SIU president Glenn Poshard said in a November press release. “We have to turn this around.”

NIU’s population has maintained a relatively slow growth since the early 1990s, and officials say they try to keep admission figures from fluctuating too highly.

“We have a committee that sets up targets each year,” said NIU admissions director Robert Burk. “We make sure our admissions mirror those targets.”

To combat the dwindling student population, SIU hired two new recruiters to attract prospects from the Chicago area. John Dunn, the school’s interim chancellor, told the AP he hopes to boost campus enrollment to about 23,000 by 2010.

SIU’s increased recruiting would come into direct competition with NIU’s primary recruiting base: Chicago.

“I don’t think it scares us,” Burk said. “But there are issues we have to be aware of. Just about every major university in the Midwest is competing in Chicago because that’s where everyone is.”

SIU’s loss in admissions resulted in a $1.8 million revenue loss for the first quarter of the university’s fiscal year. The enrollment decline contributed to SIU president Glenn Poshard’s ouster of chancellor Walter Wendler, who was displeased the school’s student population had dipped to 21,003.