Enrollment in the Army, Navy and Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps has dipped in the last two years, U.S. officials have reported.

But Kansas University – one of about three dozen schools nationwide with all three services on campus – appears to be bucking the trend. Officials with the programs on campus say their recruiting has held steady and even increased slightly in recent years.

The new class of ROTC cadets at Kansas University is larger than most despite a national trend of declining enrollment. Officials attribute the growing numbers of recruits in Kansas to the state’s conservative roots.

“What you’ve seen happen is a very gradual increase in enrollment,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Maxcy, director of KU’s Army ROTC program. “It’s not dramatic.”

Nationwide, enrollment in the Army ROTC has slipped more than 16 percent over the past two school years, leaving the program, which trains and commissions more than six of every 10 new Army officers each year, with its fewest participants in nearly a decade, according to the Washington Post.