Updates to faculty layoff plan and other stuff

[Neckfansince71]

So what changes did they make? jc

[wiu712]

Meanwhile, at Chicago State University ......

Almost all of Illinois' public universities have fewer students on campus this school year. But Chicago State University has the fewest of them all.

Chicago State's freshman class for Fall 2017 is actually larger than last year, but it is still tiny by most any measure: just 145 freshman enrolled. The university said that's up from 90 last year. That makes 2 small classes in a row.

Overall, just over 2,400 students are on campus at Chicago State, about 900 of them are graduate students. That's down 11 percent from last year, and 33 percent from two years ago.

[sealhall74]

From Google, EIU has been fairly selective in the past with an acceptance rate of only 47%. For comparison, WIU acceptance rate is 70%.
So either 1) EIU has lowered their acceptance standards OR 2) they are benefiting from sort of indirect feed of potential students from other colleges. I don't see how you can turn it around that quickly any other way short of making tuition and room and board really cheap.

[Tere North]

So what changes did they make? jc

No idea, but that's something Western should be finding out!

[Neckerchief]

I don't see how you can turn it around that quickly any other way short of making tuition and room and board really cheap.

That is actually a really good idea. Students and parents are looking for a good value today. Unfortunately, student loans have masked the true cost increases over the past couple of decades. For a great discussion of this, see:

"The Higher Education Bubble" by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

America is facing a higher education bubble. Like the housing bubble, it is the product of cheap credit coupled with popular expectations of ever-increasing returns on investment, and as with housing prices, the cheap credit has caused college tuitions to vastly outpace inflation and family incomes. Now this bubble is bursting.

Reynolds explains the causes and effects of this bubble and the steps colleges and universities must take to ensure their survival. Many graduates are unable to secure employment sufficient to pay off their loans, which are usually not dis-chargeable in bankruptcy. As students become less willing to incur debt for education, colleges and universities will have to adapt to a new world of cost pressures and declining public support.

[wiu712]

Spring semester enrollment is down 8.81% at SIU-Carbondale.

SIU-C officially enrolled 13,346 students for Spring 2018, a reduction of 1,290 students compared to last year’s enrollment of 14,636 students. During the university’s peak year in 1991, enrollment totaled more than 24,000 students at the Carbondale campus.

[Tere North]

As expected, the official view is that the Spring decline was expected and is similar to that seen in the fall. This pig needs far more than a dab of lipstick

From Tri-States Radiohttp://tspr.org/post/western-illinois-u ... lment-down

Still nothing official on the WIU website.

[wiu712]

That WIUM-FM article mentions that the 2018 spring enrollment is down 9.1% in comparison to the 2017 spring enrollment.

The total student headcount at the 10th day of the spring 2018 semester was 8,599. That includes all part-time and full-time students enrolled at Western’s Macomb and Quad Cities campuses. That compares to 9,469 students in spring of 2017.

When does a decrease in enrollment start to impact jobs ???

[ST_Lawson]

When does a decrease in enrollment start to impact jobs ???

Start to?

Started like a decade ago.

When I started working at DPS in 2008, we had ~25 employees. Within 5 years, we'd had probably 8 retirements and people moving to other jobs (their choice) that we didn't replace. Over the next few years following that, there were another 3-4 people that were laid off (not replaced) and a few positions that were eliminated (people let go or moved to other positions on campus). By the time my position was moved to uTech in 2015, we were down to under 10 people. Currently, DPS and Mail Services includes 7 people, one of which is part-time. A few of the positions themselves were still somewhere on campus, but probably 3/4 of the positions were just eliminated without replacement.

[Tere North]

When does a decrease in enrollment start to impact jobs ???

Start to?

Started like a decade ago.

Yes, administration cuts from the bottom, requiring many employees to lose their jobs or be called upon to do more, instead of at cuts at the the top.