SIUC Attendance Update

 According to this updated story, Chancellor Lane did a 180 on his decision to avoid the media and SIUC lost 95 international students year to year. Normally, that wouldn't be significant but as thin as SIUC's enrollment increases have been over the past several years, any drop is going to have an outsized impact. This is also the smallest freshman class since 2022.

As was noted in the comments on the previous post, the drop in incoming students may be due to the lack of attention SIUC administration has paid to facilities over the past 25 years. The last major upgrades to infrastructure were the new student services building football stadium and Arena renovation. There is no real need for the Tedrick Welcome Centeras the student services building could easily serve that function. The Tedricks have donated a lot of money to the university over the years but do not have anything on campus to show for it. A new welcome center is nice but does nothing to fix the leaks in the roof at Quigley Hall or the broken book shelves in Morris Library. Students come here because of solid programs, facilities that support them financial aid. Anything else is window dressing. No student, save for those on athletic scholarship, comes here because of the athletic program. 

SIUC Attendance Flat

 According to this article from the Daily Egyptian, attendance at SIUC is flat this semester, with a 5 person drop to 11, 785. According to the numbers in the press release, attendance would have been up 5 to 10% if not for a significant drop in international students. How large the drop in international students is, the press release did not say.

I found interesting Chancellor Lane's explicit refusal to sit for media interviews about the numbers but then, from what I hear, he does not much care for staying around campus.

SIUC Enrollment

 Been listening to the Chancellor put multiple spins on fall enrollment at SIUC:  largest Freshman class in 6 years, freshman class size increased for the third consecutive year, increase of 2.5% new students from the region, etc. Still, when you look at overall numbers, enrollment is down 1.4%, in a year when Uof I Champaign enrolled record numbers. It is not that students do not want to go to college, it just appears they do not want go to college at SIUC.

Throwing money at the athletic program won't do it. I have taught at SEMO for twenty years. Every year for 20 years I have asked students why they chose to come there. Responses are always the same with these the top three:  1. cost 2. location 3. programs. The only ones who have ever said they came because of the athletic program were those attending on an athletic scholarship.

Upswing

 SIUC sees an "upswing" in attendance for this spring. I certainly hope they are correct but, based on  the number of times, almost every year for the past 30, the administration at SIUC has said they see an upswing in attendance, I will wait and see if it continues for a few semesters. Basing expectations of turning the corner on one semesters results is statistically unsound. If you look at SIUC attendance over the  past 30 years, each year's decline ahs only amounted to a percent or two, small in itself, but over time they have added up to an attendance decline of over 50%

College Attendance

 Caught on Marketplace this morning that college attendance nationwide is down about 6% so not too bad a hit all things considered. However incoming freshmen are down about 16% and attendance at community colleges like John A. Logan is down about 25%

Students

I have heard that on-campus attendance at SIUC  will be less than 10,000 this fall. I remember when that was what the university expected for summer attendance and we would comment on how empty the town felt.

Attendance Down

Caught on WSIL this morning that Spring attendance at SIUC will come in at 13,300, down another 8% from Spring 2017 and down over 10,000 students from its peak back in 1990. Going to take quite a bit of work to get university numbers back to that level and I still haven't heard any good explanations as to how the proposed reorganization will accomplish this. Re-organizations generally work to make operations run more smoothly. That, as far as I can tell, is not the problem here, except maybe in recruiting. the university appears to run fairly well, it is just not attracting students at a level to replace those that graduate.

Amtrak

Gov. Rauner's proposed budget would cut state subsidies to Amtrak by about 40%, meaning routes are on the chopping block. I doubt the City of New Orleans would get cut but one of the two routes stopping in Carbondale would likely go away, making it just a bit harder to funnel students from upstate to SIUC and Carbondale. Given the current attendance at the university, we don't need anything making it harder for students to attend.

Spring Attendance at SIUC

Caught Chancellor Cheng's Morning Conversation this morning and spring attendance figures caught my attention.  It appears spring attendance has declined another 1.9%, though final figures have not released yet. Hopefully the university's marketing plan will start to bear fruit soon, thought it's going to take more than banners and billboards to change the direction of attendance.