Wonderful. Imagine the fun these freshmen will have at our alma mater.
This article shows what a good job SIU has been doing in recruiting new students vs. the other major public state schools and is a good read. Still more work to do, but this is positive.
For the Edwardsville College apologist crowd...SIU is up 2.3% and Edwardsville has dropped 3.8% in each of the past two years.
How much of the enrollment increase is on-campus vs online? As far as I saw, the university didn’t separate them. I am just wondering if the enrollment increase is actually resulting in more students in Carbondale, or if it’s just a result of the new online class program tied to community colleges.
@packerdawg The biggest increases were driven by new freshman enrollment, not transfers. So the majority of the increase the last few years were on campus. Online and satellite campuses will certainly be a focus moving forward though.
How I would fix enrollment:
• Do a very affordable 2/1 tuition system. Out of state tuition very cheap at $4000. In state at $2000.
• Give high class valedictorians 90% off their tuition. 2nd in class 70%. And let them keep it so long as they keep their GPA at 3.8 or above.
• Apply to rebrand the Kaskaskia, Wabash Valley, Rend Lake, Frontier, Southeastern Illinois, Shawnee, and John A. Logan community colleges as Southern Illinois University-(town name)-Center. So Shawnee would become Southern Illinois University-Ullin Center. The Ohio State university does something similar. Fully integrate them into the SIU academic style and push finishing their bachelor's at SIU.
"Enrollment for undergraduates is up 4.39% from spring 2023 while graduate enrollment rose 3.48%. Enrollment also increased among Black and Hispanic students, 5.39% and 3.47%, respectively. There are 8.72% more international students as well."
The positive trend continues. Good to hear. SIU Spring Enrollment Rises
Let’s hope this trend continues. Thank you for sharing the info.
How I would fix enrollment:
• Do a very affordable 2/1 tuition system. Out of state tuition very cheap at $4000. In state at $2000.
• Give high class valedictorians 90% off their tuition. 2nd in class 70%. And let them keep it so long as they keep their GPA at 3.8 or above.
• Apply to rebrand the Kaskaskia, Wabash Valley, Rend Lake, Frontier, Southeastern Illinois, Shawnee, and John A. Logan community colleges as Southern Illinois University-(town name)-Center. So Shawnee would become Southern Illinois University-Ullin Center. The Ohio State university does something similar. Fully integrate them into the SIU academic style and push finishing their bachelor's at SIU.
That sounds like a great idea. Use a pipeline to fill our majors that might lead to paying jobs.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
SIU at Carbondale Student Enrollment by years from various sources:
1947: 2,711
1975: 21,214
1980: 23,236
1985: 22,672
1990: 24,084
1991: 24,861
1995: 22,418
2003: 21,387
2004: 21,589
2005: 21,441
2006: 21,003
2007: 20,983
2008: 20,673
2009: 20,350
2010: 20,037
2011: 19,817
2012: 18,847
2013: 17,964
2014: 17,989
2015: 17,292
2016: 15,987
2017: 14,554
2018: 13,271
2019: 11,695
2020: 11,366
2021: 11,266
2022: 11,107
2023: 11,359
Observations
- Off Campus enrollment has been pretty steady despite the severe drop in on campus enrollment: off campus enrollment peaked at 2,870 in 1991 and in 2017 it was 2,146.
- What happened in the 2010s to cause the enrollment to plummet so rapidly in that decade? It had been consistently in the 20K-24K range from the early 1970s to 2010 (4 decades!)
- Macro headwinds are what others have stated: declining enrollment nationally driven primarily by more and more men not going to college. By 2030 women are expected to outnumber men 2:1 on college campuses! I wish I could be 18 again in 2030!!! 😍
- State headwinds: people continue to leave Illinois for other destinations.
SIU has some solid programs with very affordable tuition. Nice employment prospects in St Louis and Chicago. Good MVC athletics.
It appears the university's glory days were from the late 1960s to about 2010 (5 decades!) and then boom . . . fall off a cliff. Very sad to see.
When I last came back to campus in the Fall of 2014 I thought the athletics facilities were amazing and overall the campus looked good though some academic buildings and residence halls looked like they needed a makeover. I drove around to all of the facilities including the airport and I thought if I was 18 I would be excited about going to school at this university. It has a lot to offer. How many schools have their own airport and fleet of planes so that students can learn to become a pilot (one great example)?
I chatted with a grad student working at Buffalo Wild Wings in Carbondale and I asked her to give me her thoughts on SIU. She basically stated that SIU-E was in many ways a better school given the location in a large metro area with more opportunities for part-time work, internships, and post grad employment.
Will SIU-E become the death of SIU-C?
I agree with other posters that the city of Carbondale needs a facelift. SIU needs to work harder and smarter to turn this thing around.
What year did the wokeness and "studies" lines of study start?
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
What year did the wokeness and "studies" lines of study start?
Are you suggesting that gender and African American studies majors caused the enrollment decline at SIU?
@saluki44 Of course, schools that have strengthen academics standards have seen an increase enrollment. Schools like SIU, which have weakened the standards, have experienced a decrease in enrollment.
@saluki44 Of course, schools that have strengthen academics standards have seen an increase enrollment. Schools like SIU, which have weakened the standards, have experienced a decrease in enrollment.
You realize one of the factors that some attribute to Southern’s decrease in enrollment is the tightening of admissions by the administration in the early 2000s in an effort to counter the party school image that Southern had accrued over time, right?
@saluki44 Of course, schools that have strengthen academics standards have seen an increase enrollment. Schools like SIU, which have weakened the standards, have experienced a decrease in enrollment.
Forgetting that this isn’t at all true in SIU’s case, can you point me to a source that backs up your claim in general?
