Enrollment down 3.4 percent at NIU

DEKALB -- Northern Illinois University officials say enrollment is down 3.4 percent, but they blame a sour economy for the drop, not a shooting rampage by a former student that killed five students.

Total enrollment for the fall 2008 semester is 24,397. That's 857 students less than the same time period last year.

Vice Provost Earl Seaver said in a statement Thursday that undergraduate applications increased to about 17,200, about 1,000 over the previous year. But he says a higher than usual number of admitted students are postponing enrollment because of financial concerns.

NIU spokeswoman Melanie Magara says the February 14th shootings don't appear connected to the decrease. She says student leaders only got two questions about it from more than 3,000 students at a summer orientation.