Program cuts

[leatherface]

WGEM in Quincy is reporting today that WIU will be eliminating 24 academic programs. Not a bad thing- my understanding is these programs had little to no one in them. What worries me more, is KHQA will be running a news segment on WIU and "survival". The pro- mo's mentioning how total enrollment in Macomb during the past ten years has diminished, state aid is obviously not there, and a general story on a tough survival for the future. A student interviewed expressed how Macomb is partly to blame for lack of student interest in attending. The other state schools are in populated areas and " more to do" etc.

WESTERN needs to carve out a niche, and work like heck to become known as a great school for such and such- and, I don't mean drinking beer. A lot of folks might not agree, but my experiences have shown WIU has had a rocky image in this region of the state. It has improved, and things do look up in many ways. Competition is tough for new students, and I feel WIU needs to find a couple of things to hang their hat on, and really build up those areas.

[WIU0812]

I definitely believe that the lack of development of any towns in the Western area leads to a great deal of struggle for the school. I am not a huge fan of Galesburg, but if the school was located there off 74 I think enrollment and the school would be much bigger and different than what we see today. Every school should be located in a town of near 50,000 as that is about the line where things start clicking and you see things like malls and specialty shops survive which is what young individuals look for.

That being said the 336 project continues and they are supposedly finishing up plans for the first 5 or 10 miles from Peoria towards Canton which will be the first part completed of a 4 lane highway directly to a large scale market. Every few years IDOT lets out a little more of the 67 project from Jacksonville towards Beardstown which means a few less minutes with each piece completed from the market of Springfield and St. Louis, though it will be a long while before they even reach Beardstown and after that a new bridge will be needed across the river. I would say if Macomb is lucky in 25 years one of these may get kind of close to reaching the town, but Macomb has to find ways to grow until then and give the state a reason to continue these projects.

[sealhall74]

My crystal ball is saying the future (20+ years from now) of WIU is in the Quad-Cities. The train going through there will make it even more attractive to Chicago area students. If they start throwing up some housing in Moline, Macomb will rapidly become the "satellite" campus for ag students and a few other "niche" programs.

[WIU0812]

My crystal ball is saying the future (20+ years from now) of WIU is in the Quad-Cities. The train going through there will make it even more attractive to Chicago area students. If they start throwing up some housing in Moline, Macomb will rapidly become the "satellite" campus for ag students and a few other "niche" programs.

I just do not think there is not enough room where they built the campus for any more than the 3 phases they have designed. They would have to deal with some major issues such as there is a large set of double freight tracks that is used to by John Deere which literally touch the east edge of campus, on the other side of tracks is a junk yard which I suppose if some how the city had a major influence the school may be able to acquire (this is doubtful), farther east of that is a huge cemetery. They could buy up all the businesses and warehouses north of them, but that would make for a long and skinny campus that still would be 1 tenth the size of Macomb's. To the south this is already being developed by businesses and housing complexes for the students. The new campus is nice, but not a lot of room for expansion beyond what they have planned. I would say this will peak at approx 4,000 to 5,000 students.

I guess I did not know that Quad Cities had amtrak train service?

[sealhall74]

Show me where it says a college has to have a nice quaint little campus with all buildings sitting next to each other. Somewhere near John Deere HQs or plant operations, they could build yet another facility designed just for WIU Engineering students where they could get hands on experience. John Deere willing of course. A prime example that comes to mind is UN-Lincoln. They have two major campus areas a couple of miles apart and separated by a big residence area.

[WIU0812]

I suppose you would not have to have everything on the same campus but I would feel like the commuting would really suck.

[sealhall74]

Commuting is an issue but most colleges already have bus systems to solve that problem. I went to a BB game at University of Richmond on Saturday. I parked on campus but had to catch a shuttle bus for a 10 minute ride to the arena.

[WIU0812]

yes but it is a little different when your math class and engineering class are in completely different areas of a city. There are quite a few schools who have their athletics in a different building look at Bradley. I am not saying it is impossible but it may be a drawback to the situation. There are arguments for both but needless to say I hope it stays in Macomb

[sealhall74]

Twenty years from now kids will be skyping in to intro math classes from either home or their dorm room. Saw something on the news just a couple of days ago about a kid in high school who was sick or injured and could not attend class. He now shows up every day to class as a little segway robot with a goPro camera attached to it. Technology is so cool.

Make that an Ipod, not a goPro. My bad.

[sealhall74]

Here is more info about specific program cut recommendations.

http://wqad.com/2015/02/23/which-progra ... niversity/

Hard for me to see how eliminating a program minor could result in much cost savings if you still offer it as a major.