When leaders at Grand View University decided to try to find ways to increase enrollment at the university, they found a simple answer:

Focus on athletic programs.

The school’s football and wrestling teams have grown substantially and are now in their third seasons since being launched in 2008. The school has added men’s and women’s bowling. And after having only seven sports and 128 athletes 10 years ago, Grand View now competes in 20 sports with 600 athletes — accounting for more than a third of the school’s 1,686 full-time students.

“This is one of the ways we decided we were going to grow enrollment, get more sports and larger roster numbers,” Athletics Director Troy Plummer said.

It has worked. Part of the result has been a surprising 5 percent increase in enrollment this fall following a record freshman class of 345 students two years ago. Overall enrollment has grown from 1,372 full time students in 2005 and only 907 in 2000. That’s led to renovations on campus and groundbreaking for a new residence hall on East 14th Street that can house up to 252 people.

The growth of athletics has coincided with other things happening at the university. Grand View added a biochemistry program to its curriculum this fall, and a church music program.

However, “athletics probably had a bigger impact, I would say, than the academic programs,” said Debbie Barger, vice president for enrollment management.

The athletic programs have combined with academics to give students another reason to attend Grand View, Plummer said. Now instead of selling just academic programs to potential students, university officials can also sell athletics, both to athletes and to non-athletes.

“Either they want to participate or just come here to Grand View because of all the good things that are going on around here,” Plummer said. “They know they can get a quality education here, but what goes along with that? If they live on campus, what are they doing on the weekends? It’s the overall vibrancy of campus.”

The thought started with President Kent Henning, who had the vision of growing the university through athletic programs. The first step was adding junior varsity teams to the existing sports. Then the school added golf, soccer, track and field and cross-country. Two years ago, the football and wrestling teams were launched. This year, the bowling teams are the newest additions.

“They are students first,” Plummer said. “And if athletics gives them a vehicle to use to pay for school, then that’s great.”

Recruiting out of state

The university has been able to raise awareness in Des Moines, and has also been able to recruit out of state.

More than 50 percent of the players on the football team’s roster are from outside Iowa, including 46 players from Texas, as Coach Mike Woodley has connections in the Houston area from his days as a high school coach there. Also represented are California, Missouri, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

It’s not only athletes that the university is looking to attract from other states.

The school hopes to market itself to more out-of-state students who aren’t necessarily looking to play sports, especially in California and Texas.

“Because of the demographics of Iowa, we are being proactive about looking more out of state,” Barger said. “California has had just a whole bad experience out there for their students, because of the cuts of those schools, so we’re going to start doing a little more active recruiting in California. Because of our draw from Texas, we’re going to look to do some non-athletic visibility in the Houston area, primarily.”

The goal isn’t to become a big university, she said, but to keep the university sustainable. Grand View wants to avoid what happened to Nebraska’s Dana College, which closed its doors in July on 550 remaining students.

“A lot of institutions who are very small are finding it difficult to stay open,” Barger said.

Building for the future

With growth come new facilities.

The new $15 million residence hall, expected to be completed and opened next fall, will provide an attractive housing option for older students. The apartment-style rooms will be set up so every student will have his or her own room in a three- or four-bedroom unit, which will also include a shared kitchen and bathroom.

It provides an opportunity for the record freshman class of 2008 to stay on campus as seniors, Barger said.

“It’s really a chicken-and-egg thing, because if you don’t have the facilities, then students who want to live on campus and have upper-class housing will either choose to live off campus somewhere else or choose to go elsewhere,” Barger said. “So every time we’ve built to meet the needs, usually in a couple years it’s full.

“We catch up, and then because of our building and everything that’s going on, the interest grows. Then we try to catch up again.”

Other potential renovations on the horizon include an upgrade to the Student Center, just south of the new dorms on East 14th Street, and a pedestrian mall west of that busy street. The Student Center renovation could house all the school’s dining facilities. In addition, the university is looking at putting in a skywalk from the renovated Student Center to the Rasmussen Center across the street.

The university will also look at adding faculty, based on projected needs for next school year.

Everything is interrelated, Barger and Plummer both noted. The more students and student-athletes choose Grand View, the more renovations will be necessary, but construction is also possible because of more tuition money coming in.

“We have a little growth we’re trying to do yet,” Barger said. “We didn’t expect this kind of growth. When I’m looking ahead, I’m looking ahead at a modest increase, but sometimes it surprises you like it did this fall.”