@saluki44 I'm suggesting we've lost our way and SIU-E is a better value proposition. Look at the org chart from the 90s with 20+ thousand versus today with much lower enrollment.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
While I thought the spring recruiting events with the chancellor visiting southern Illinois counties was a great idea, I question why they did not venture farther north with this program. I thought they should have ventured into every area from I-64 south, maybe even I-70 south. The St. Louis metropolitan area, including the Illinois counties of St. Clair-Randolph-Monroe-Madison, used to be a source of many SIUC students. Now I see these same students preferring SEMO, Murray, and SIUE now. SIUC needs to reestablish itself in this area. It would be interesting to see where the SIUC students came from by percentage of total enrollment during the heydays of enrollment compared to current enrollment.
Summer enrollment up a couple hundred from last summer. Hopefully this trend, however small, continues.
https://news.siu.edu/2024/07/072524-siu-carbondales-summer-2024-enrollment-rises.php
. Absolutely Love To Hear This NewsSummer enrollment up a couple hundred from last summer. Hopefully this trend, however small, continues.
https://news.siu.edu/2024/07/072524-siu-carbondales-summer-2024-enrollment-rises.php
SIU Carbondale has highest enrollment jump in 33 years, bucks recent national trends
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Enrollment at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has risen for the second year in a row for the first time since 2000. And the freshman class increased for the fifth consecutive year.
Overall enrollment for fall 2024 grew 3.8% to 11,790, or 431 more students than last year. This is the highest overall boost in the number of students since 1991 and the highest percentage increase since 1987.
The university welcomed 1,758 new freshmen this fall, 137 students or 8.45% more than 2023. Cumulatively, the increase in the freshman class is 69.5% since 2019. And these students are well prepared: New students with a GPA of 3.0 or better have increased 8.4% over last year.
The student body is also diverse, with about 9% more Black students, about 12% more Hispanic students and about 2.5% more international students. Undergraduate enrollment rose about 4.5%, and enrollment in graduate and professional programs is up about 2.3%.
New transfer student enrollment increased about 2% to 1,255, and 47% have GPAs above 3.0. Part of that increase can be attributed to Saluki Step Ahead, which allows graduates of partner community colleges to earn their SIU Carbondale bachelor’s degrees online. Enrollment in Saluki Step Ahead increased 111%, including about 62% in the Southern Illinois region.
Great news. Lane has been a tremendous hire for SIU.
Was excited when I saw that article this morning. I sensed it, being around campus the last couple weeks.
I'll be curious to see how this compares to our peers. I know Murray State just advertised a large increase in freshmen enrollment, and SEMO and Illinois State have done well in recent years. Illinois State, in particular, is at record enrollment levels.
Here's to Southern continuing this trend and their leaders and students continuing to raise awareness on how good of a place SIU is.
Still work to be done, but this is encouraging news. I seem to recall Lane saying the long-term goal was a steady, stable enrollment of about 15,000. If this trend continues, that could happen sooner rather than later.
Continued progress and positive news for Chancellor Lane, and the university. Some folks don't seem to care much for him. I think he was a great hire, and has done a great job thus far for our beloved SIU. Getting closer to the 12,000 mark!
This is good news. The overall enrollment increased by 683 students over the last two years, but 463 of those students were onliners. I couldn't find the complete off-campus numbers, but assuming they were stable, our enrollment increased by over 200 students (in two years) to about 8,953 students on-campus.
I hope we don't resort to the EIU playbook of using thousands of high school onliners to pad the overall enrollment number. This distorts the true picture of our campus for our future students and alumni.
A lot of universities offer some courses/degrees online anymore. I imagine most schools include those fuzzy numbers.
At least it's going up and not down at a time when there are fewer possible college students and less interest in college.
https://harpers.org/archive/2024/09/what-are-you-going-to-do-with-that-erik-baker-college-education/
As happy as I am for Southern’s enrollment results, Illinois St seems to be the standard-bearer in the state right now.
Freshman class of 4,285 and total enrollment up to 21,546 (2.7% increase) — both records.
(For reference, Southern’s freshman class is at 1,758.)
They’re investing a ton into a new engineering program. Building and hiring new faculty.
They’ve got a lot of momentum right now.
The last few years, Illinois has been reestablishing itself as a good place to move to. With the economic improvements, investment into its state universities, and positive momentum nationally with its image, each Illinois school can thrive at the same time. We just desperately needed to stop losing our own students and gain some additional interest from our border state students again. Illinois State succeeding is more than likely a good thing for SIU's future, as long as we continue to improve ourselves. The same goes for Western and Eastern. We would be a fool to root for any of their demises. Murray and SEMO? Who cares.
@cosmos Not so sure Illinois is perceived as a good place to move to. Chicago is suffering big time and as it goes, so too does the state. And don't get me started on your governor. No thanks.
@cosmos Not so sure Illinois is perceived as a good place to move to. Chicago is suffering big time and as it goes, so too does the state. And don't get me started on your governor. No thanks.
Yeah, if Illinois was perceived positively by people, our population wouldn't be in decline. We have a very bad image nationally, and within our own state. People can't wait to get out of here.
