The presentation was pretty much a litany of reasons why the university has not grown since it peaked in the early 1990s. Among the reasons given:
almost all Illinois state universities (excepting UI) saw declines in attendance over the past few years.
the counties in southern Illinois around SIUC have all seen population declines, while those around SIUE have seen population increases.
the counties in southern Illinois around SIUC have all seen declines in high school graduates and few of those graduates choose to come to SIUC ( I remember parents of Carbondale high school students earlier this decade telling me that, while most of the college files in the guidance councilor's office were bursting with paperwork, SIUC's has a single page in it. When I asked President Poshard about this after his speech, he said the university had done a poor job of reaching out to local high schools but were working on improving).
increased recruiting by schools from the states surrounding southern Illinois.
continued declines in state funding since 2002.
no reimbursement for veteran's support functions for the past two years.
lack of spending by the university on promotion of itself.
almost all Illinois state universities (excepting UI) saw declines in attendance over the past few years.
the counties in southern Illinois around SIUC have all seen population declines, while those around SIUE have seen population increases.
the counties in southern Illinois around SIUC have all seen declines in high school graduates and few of those graduates choose to come to SIUC ( I remember parents of Carbondale high school students earlier this decade telling me that, while most of the college files in the guidance councilor's office were bursting with paperwork, SIUC's has a single page in it. When I asked President Poshard about this after his speech, he said the university had done a poor job of reaching out to local high schools but were working on improving).
increased recruiting by schools from the states surrounding southern Illinois.
continued declines in state funding since 2002.
no reimbursement for veteran's support functions for the past two years.
lack of spending by the university on promotion of itself.
"almost all Illinois state universities (excepting UI) saw declines in attendance over the past few years."
ReplyDeleteHe must have used a really short time frame for "the past few years." From 2000-2010, the majority of Illinois state universities had enrollment increases. Among the universities that had enrollment declines, Carbondale's decline was the largest by far.
"the counties in southern Illinois around SIUC have all seen population declines, while those around SIUE have seen population increases."
ReplyDeleteThat isn't much of an explanation. The university draws a few times as many freshmen from Chicago and its suburbs and exurbs as it draws from southern Illinois. President Poshard may have been able to make a decent case by talking about population declines up north, but the local population probably never was big enough to support a university of its current size.
As I remember Poshard talked about the problem with SIU's marketing in high schools when he took office. Guess he has been busy building football stadiums and hasn't gotten around that trying to get more students yet?
ReplyDeleteThe university hired and has kept the services of an outside marketing firm since 2010.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the administration, the money spent on new branding, including a new logo, allowed the university to turn a corner last year with a smaller decline in enrollment.
The numbers I've heard around campus suggest that the university will to turn the corner again this fall with a bigger one-year enrollment decline -- possibly the biggest decline in a decade.
Thanks Paranoid. I couldn't remember from my notes what the actual time frame was on declines so erred on the side of caution. I agree, the university has turned the corner so many times it's back where it started from.
ReplyDelete