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Demand for a University of Iowa degree is holding steady, according to the UI Registrar’s Office enrollment figures for the fall 2004 semester.
The University has 29,745 students this semester, just as it did last year. Of those students, 20,135 are undergraduates.
First-year student enrollment—4,017 this fall—is in line with the University’s goals.
“For the past couple of years, our freshman class target has been 4,000, the maximum number we believe allows us to create the kind of freshman experience that is important for student success,” says Lola Lopes, associate provost for undergraduate education. “Of course, we also want to be here for every qualified Iowan who wants to come, and that number seems to be rising.”
The University of Iowa will be able to bring even more top scholars into classrooms, thanks to 100 new endowed faculty positions.
Endowed faculty positions, funded by private contributions to the University, provide faculty members with additional funding for research and instruction.
“Teaching and research are the two most important things we do as faculty members; the investigations we conduct in our varied research activities—whether in the arts, humanities, sciences, law, pharmacy, engineering, business, or medicine—provide the fuel that fires excitement in the classroom for students and instructors alike,” says John Beldon Scott, the Elizabeth M. Stanley Professor of the Arts in the School of Art and Art History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “By bringing our research into the classroom, we stimulate a new generation to respond creatively and effectively to issues vital to the well-being of our physical selves, our social comity, and our human culture.”
This infusion of resources for teaching and research is part of the UI’s $1 billion “Good. Better. Best. Iowa” campaign, during which the UI Foundation is seeking to raise private funds to help launch a variety of initiatives across campus, substantially increase the number of scholarships and endowed faculty positions, support new educational and research facilities, build the University’s endowment, and fund outreach and service programs.
