Summer Brings Thousands Of Visitors To Campus


by Anne Dolan

An estimated 800 Methodists will arrive for four days in 
June. More than 600 youths will attend hockey camps during 
July and August. Three thousand new Cyclone students, some of 
whom travel here with parents, visit throughout June for 
campus orientation events. Others -- campers of all ages -- 
will come to improve their fire fighting, cheerleading, child 
care, free throw shooting, pitching (golf or baseball; take 
your pick), keyboard, laboratory and leadership skills. 
They'll learn about new techniques in teaching science, 
better ways to provide nutritious school lunches, rules for 
British soccer, the surest way to put a wrestling opponent in 
a headlock and the logistics of a live radio broadcast from a 
location along the RAGBRAI bicycle route.

A majority of the summer visitors to campus are middle school 
or high school students, but about one-third are adults.

In all, more than 16,000 people -- roughly the difference 
between fall and summer enrollments -- from across the state, 
the upper Midwest and the nation -- will visit Iowa State 
this summer to improve themselves professionally, 
academically, spiritually or physically, or to simply have 
fun. Not counted among those thousands are several thousand 
more competitors and spectators who visit this weekend for 
the Iowa Special Olympics and in early August for the Iowa 
Games.


SPECIAL EVENTS

The two and a half months between spring commencement and 
early August are a boom time for special events staff, 
according to Mary Ann Simpson, marketing and conference 
coordinator for the residence hall system. Because sizable 
clusters of rooms aren't available during the school year, 
the residence halls house conference participants only during 
the summer months.

Simpson said the number of camps and conferences scheduled at 
ISU has exploded in the last five years, in part because the 
university works harder to market itself as a conference 
site. Iowa State staff coordinate their efforts with the Ames 
Convention and Visitors Bureau to "sell" campus facilities 
nationwide. This year's visitors log will be typical, Simpson 
said. Last summer, more than 25,000 people stayed on campus; 
a group of 4,000 Presbyterian women and about half of the 
15,000 participants and spectators who attended Odyssey of 
the Mind World Finals made up a big chunk of that number.


SUMMER REVENUE

Simpson said summer revenue brought in to the residence halls 
helps keep room and board rates lower for students who live 
there during the regular school year. Residence halls are a 
self-supporting unit of the university.

But summer visitors on campus positively impact the 
university in more ways than financially. Simpson said Iowa 
State can recruit and keep higher quality residence hall 
employees because it can offer year-round employment. She 
noted that residence staff at colleges without a full summer 
schedule often receive only nine-month contracts, a factor 
that reduces the employee pool.


RECRUITING TOOL

Summer camps and conferences, particularly those that attract 
college-bound high school and middle school students, are a 
great recruiting tool. Earl Dowling, director of enrollment 
services, said Iowa State can't court every student that 
attends summer camp, but has had success recruiting from 
among specific groups of students. Coaches, too, use summer 
camps to get an early look at budding athletes and to 
interest them in Iowa State.

"The opportunity to have young men and women here in the 
summer is critical to recruiting them later as students," 
Dowling said. He said summer especially is an opportune time 
because the campus is beautiful, the atmosphere is relaxed 
and faculty involved in summer activities and conferences do 
a great job with the younger students.

In many cases, it's a long-term process, but worth the 
effort, according to Dowling. He receives names and addresses 
of students attending specific activities for mail and 
telephone follow-up lists in the admissions office. 

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contact:  Anne Dolan, (515) 294-7065
updated:  5-26-95