Well, I hate to say it...My daughter was a senior in HS last year. She is an athlete, so we took many unofficial and official campus visits over the past two years. We looked at 14 different D1 campuses (as I recall). SIU was not one of the schools that we visited... even though she lives less than 5 hours from there, is the daughter of an active alumnus, participates at a very high level in a sport that we have and she was a straight A student, we never heard from them at all. Compared to all the D1 schools we looked at, I think the SIU campus, based on my last visit to Carbondale in 2016, would rank last or at least way down on the bottom of the list. I love SIU. The natural backdrop and the architecture of the old campus give us a big head start, but the campus looked tired and unkept compared to much of its competition. As much as I loved my dorms in Thompson Point when I lived there, they are about 50 years past their prime. I think kids today don't give a #### about the historical beauty of the architecture on the campus. They are looking for new and cool. The strip/ city of Carbondale looks like a village from a third world country. Of the 14 D1 schools mentioned above, 10 were public schools. All ten, assuming in state tuition was possible, were less expensive than SIU. A few from neighboring states, were far less. So if we ever want SIU to be super competitive again, we will need to renovate and modernize. New dorms and way more modern choices for dining and entertainment. We will need to figure out a way to make an SIU education more affordable. SIU will need to be heavily involved in on line learning and combination online and campus classes. They (I don't know who "they" is) will need to extensively improve the strip area. As much as we loved it, most of today's kids don't want 1979, they are looking for 2030. It is going to take a LARGE investment. An investment that we can't afford to do and we can't afford not to do... JMO
Formerly known as 81Dog
Well, I hate to say it...My daughter was a senior in HS last year. She is an athlete, so we took many unofficial and official campus visits over the past two years. We looked at 14 different D1 campuses (as I recall). SIU was not one of the schools that we visited... even though she lives less than 5 hours from there, is the daughter of an active alumnus, participates at a very high level in a sport that we have and she was a straight A student, we never heard from them at all. Compared to all the D1 schools we looked at, I think the SIU campus, based on my last visit to Carbondale in 2016, would rank last or at least way down on the bottom of the list. I love SIU. The natural backdrop and the architecture of the old campus give us a big head start, but the campus looked tired and unkept compared to much of its competition. As much as I loved my dorms in Thompson Point when I lived there, they are about 50 years past their prime. I think kids today don't give a #### about the historical beauty of the architecture on the campus. They are looking for new and cool. The strip/ city of Carbondale looks like a village from a third world country. Of the 14 D1 schools mentioned above, 10 were public schools. All ten, assuming in state tuition was possible, were less expensive than SIU. A few from neighboring states, were far less. So if we ever want SIU to be super competitive again, we will need to renovate and modernize. New dorms and way more modern choices for dining and entertainment. We will need to figure out a way to make an SIU education more affordable. SIU will need to be heavily involved in on line learning and combination online and campus classes. They (I don't know who "they" is) will need to extensively improve the strip area. As much as we loved it, most of today's kids don't want 1979, they are looking for 2030. It is going to take a LARGE investment. An investment that we can't afford to do and we can't afford not to do... JMO
So the cure for expensive enrollment is flushing millions down the toilet to increase tuition even further on the hope if you build it they will come? I seem to remember that being the rationale for saluki way and ticket receipts for bball/fball are way down after renovation. I don't think you realize it but you make a really good argument for dropping SIU altogether based on required investment needed to stay competitive.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
I am not saying that is the answer. See last sentence in my post. All I am saying is that there are reasons that our enrolment is declining...
Formerly known as 81Dog
SIU needs to lower tuition and market the university effectively. I think a remodeling of the dorms and renovation/replacement of buildings like Rehn, Neckers, and a couple wings of Engineering is necessary. Morris can seem irrational at times but SIU really should cut down on administrators and focus on replacing faculty especially when it’s structured for 20,000 students and they are low on faculty. Carbondale needs to find the money to renovate the strip. Maybe acquire empty buildings and bulldoze them, turn them into green-space, or renovate them. I hate to say it but outside of the natural beauty in the area, Carbondale is very ugly and aging. It has to scare students away.
81dawg is right, the university and Carbondale need a massive investment and I’m not confident they can find the money to do it. The money spent on Saluki Way should have been spent on academics and academic infrastructure, Athletics was performing better before it anyway.
One of the schools that my daughter looked at had invested a ton of $$ in online education. They now have one of the largest online student enrollments in the country. They take ALL of their profits and invest in bricks and mortar (as they say). The result is an AMAZING campus and giant increases in enrollment. I am the first to admit that I know nothing about university economics, strategy or business plans, but on the surface, maybe something like that could be effective. Probably too late in that game, but it seems like with all of the potential for rural and remote students, who would more trust in a name like SIU than some national group, they might be able to jump start something like that in so ill. Some of the schools that we looked at had combination programs, where the majority of class time was lectures and assignments on line, but still a minimal physical presence was required. Again, that would be perfect for remote students or people who just wanted to get as many credits in place before they make the actual move to campus... again, I don't know. All I know is that the 1970-80s business plan apparently doesn't work anymore! Someone is going to have to get creative at SIU and in Carbondale.
Formerly known as 81Dog
SIU suffers from years and years and years of mismanagement. Randy Dunn was the scum on the cake. It's going to take some time to get SIU's situation and image turned around. The current board and university leaders need to be monitoring the marketing efforts and new enrollment coordinator very closely.
SIU suffers from years and years and years of mismanagement. Randy Dunn was the scum on the cake. It's going to take some time to get SIU's situation and image turned around. The current board and university leaders need to be monitoring the marketing efforts and new enrollment coordinator very closely.
How many times must they beat their heads against the wall trying the same solutions over and over again? A good start would be cutting the org chart numbers down to where they were with 20k students. The next step would be getting org charts numbers (per student) down to where is was when we had 20k students.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
One of the schools that my daughter looked at had invested a ton of $$ in online education. They now have one of the largest online student enrollments in the country. They take ALL of their profits and invest in bricks and mortar (as they say). The result is an AMAZING campus and giant increases in enrollment. I am the first to admit that I know nothing about university economics, strategy or business plans, but on the surface, maybe something like that could be effective. Probably too late in that game, but it seems like with all of the potential for rural and remote students, who would more trust in a name like SIU than some national group, they might be able to jump start something like that in so ill. Some of the schools that we looked at had combination programs, where the majority of class time was lectures and assignments on line, but still a minimal physical presence was required. Again, that would be perfect for remote students or people who just wanted to get as many credits in place before they make the actual move to campus... again, I don't know. All I know is that the 1970-80s business plan apparently doesn't work anymore! Someone is going to have to get creative at SIU and in Carbondale.
That school likely had competent leadership.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
Enrollment numbers to be released today . Hearing total enrollment to be around 11500 which is down again. SIU administers hopefully this will be the bottom and do have a plan going forward.
SIU suffers from years and years and years of mismanagement. Randy Dunn was the scum on the cake. It's going to take some time to get SIU's situation and image turned around. The current board and university leaders need to be monitoring the marketing efforts and new enrollment coordinator very closely.
How many times must they beat their heads against the wall trying the same solutions over and over again? A good start would be cutting the org chart numbers down to where they were with 20k students. The next step would be getting org charts numbers (per student) down to where is was when we had 20k students.
When SIU was seeing 20k students, they were hot party image and "6 hour drive" but still in-state tuition.
Carbondale and SIU adjusted to "research" institute and back burnered the party school, things have been on the decline since....
Just released press announcement: Overall enrollment declined, but data shows a strong freshman class and an increase in the freshman to sophomore retention rate. https://news.siu.edu/2019/09/090419-fall-2019-enrollment-data.php
I'm not sayin' -- I'm just sayin'!
That’s better than the <10,000 I had heard early Spring at least. Glad the average ACT score is up to 24.4, that is big. It shows that the students SIU does attract are quality and not destined to fail, which had kept enrollment afloat in the past.
One interesting stat I have heard is that about of SIU students are now in STEM fields and that MCMA and CoLA has suffered the dramatic drop.
So am I misunderstanding something? It said “new students” which I assume is freshman and transfers ALSO dropped by 8+%. Despite SIU’s standard spin machining seems like that is resounding failure unless I misunderstand new student
Freshman class dropped 8% transfer students saw an increase of 1 % or 7 students. At some point they have to stop the bleeding. Signs point to a turn around but I would still be very concerned about the size of the freshman class. Hoping that they are on the right track .
Freshman class dropped 8% transfer students saw an increase of 1 % or 7 students. At some point they have to stop the bleeding. Signs point to a turn around but I would still be very concerned about the size of the freshman class. Hoping that they are on the right track .
See that's the thing to me, if the freshman are still decreasing signs just arent pointing a turn around. SIU is leaning in hard to this "oh well it was a large senior class", but the decrease in freshman class is the same as the overall decrease.
