Leatherneck Nation

Why transfer any "hate" on the current situation to Goldfarb's prediction? It may very well be right. As far as the only university in the western Illinois region, UIS could certainly be looked upon. Located in the state capitol, much larger populated area, economic advantages, AND, part of the U of I system. Who do you think would receive more attention- Springfield or Macomb?

If they predicted that enrollment was going to take a dump why weren't there ideas being thrown around to combat it ten years ago? Maybe there was? What was tried? Not just sit around and say well it's probably going to happen nothing can be done. That is the opposite of leadership. I think there are half-brains at both the state level and locally.

Maybe goldfarb thought he would still be the president and was trying to cover his own behind.

Or, maybe just smart enough to look and population indicator's etc. UIS could be a problem for Western. Very,very aggressive leadership and part of the U of I system.

The Chancellor at UIS is Susan Koch. She took office on July 1, 2011.

She was one of the five finalists for the President's position at Western. That job went to current president Jack Thomas.

If you did not see this enrollment drop coming, you had blinders on. The west-central Illinois counties surrounding Macomb are all experiencing NEGATIVE population growth since 2000 forcing many school district consolidations throughout the area. Here are the very telling charts:

https://www.illinois-demographics.com/c ... population

My question was not meant to be negative, I was just wondering what Dr. Goldfarb based his prediction on! 712 continues to mention it, I was just looking for some historical background. jc

Also, have heard for quite sometime that Rauner was not looking to solve budget problem. Instead he was looking to decrease or destroy Madagin's influence. A number of former governors suggested he not try to come on to heavy and yet that is exactly what he did. I can't help though to think that failing 3 years in a row to agree on a budget would make it tougher to be reelected instead of easier!

leatherface wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:53 pm Or, maybe just smart enough to look and population indicator's etc. UIS could be a problem for Western. Very,very aggressive leadership and part of the U of I system.

This is exactly what wiu needs. Aggressive leadership. Not a spin doctor with "the gift of gab".

Neckfansince71 wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2017 2:38 pmI was just wondering what Dr. Goldfarb based his prediction on!

President Goldfarb was a frequent guest on a weekly public affairs program that used to air on WJEQ Radio. He would often talk about Western's Mission and Western's future.

As noted above by Seal Hall, the population in the 20 counties that make up Western's service region has been in decline. President Goldfarb said that Western had to change from being a regional university to one with more of a state-wide mission.

He would often talk about the "Truman State Model" as being the direction that Western should be going.

Northeast Missouri State became Truman State in 1996. As part of that transition, Truman State changed their admission standards. Truman State is Missouri's only state-wide public liberal arts and science university. This changed the school's mission to being a statewide rather than a regional (northeast) objective. As a result, nearly 100 programs were dropped in the span of six years, including all two-year programs that did not fulfill the liberal arts mission.

The Truman State Model would fit in with Rauner's goal of getting rid of duplication in our current state university set-up.