Leatherneck Nation

ST_Lawson wrote:

Neckfansince71 wrote:You would think state universities would be high on the list as well. Ugh! jc

Although from everything I've read, it sounds like the state universities are essentially last on the list.

Probably because when you look at who appears to be hurt most by lack of funding, people see highly paid university administrators and professors (like a few at U of I) as pretty low priority compared to children, mothers, elderly, mentally ill, etc. I get the argument, but they need to realize that the ones they're really hurting are the regular employees...civil service people and young professors with very low pay and almost no job security...people who don't make much money, have young families to support, and can't afford to deal with a pay cut.

No surprise to me. His intention is to get the government out of the education business.

sealhall74 wrote:No surprise to me. His intention is to get the government out of the education business.

Illinois State Senator Bill Brady from Bloomington has a plan to privatize the state universities:
http://will.illinois.edu/news/story/sen ... iversities

wiu712 wrote:

sealhall74 wrote:No surprise to me. His intention is to get the government out of the education business.

Illinois State Senator Bill Brady from Bloomington has a plan to privatize the state universities:
http://will.illinois.edu/news/story/sen ... iversities

Probably something that should be explored. Can you re-invent yourself to become more relevant? Could WIU become the Grand Canyon U of the Midwest? You never know.

Northeast Missouri State University (NEMO) was a basic going nowhere school, then reinvented itself as Truman State. Now it leads the national rankings, etc. It takes tremendous courage and leadership. When we haphazardly add programs while other schools are dropping programs, we are bloating like Illinois government, not moving to where we need to be.

Tere North wrote:Northeast Missouri State University (NEMO) was a basic going nowhere school, then re-invented itself as Truman State. Now it leads the national rankings.

President Goldfarb would frequently talk about the Truman State approach during his frequent appearances on the public affairs radio program "Public Perspective" on WJEQ.

Rising tuition at the Illinois state universities is causing Illinois high school students to look at other options.

For the last two years, around 30% of incoming Freshman at Mizzou are from Illinois.

A high school student in west-central Illinois may decide to go to Truman State instead of Western because of the cost differential.

Good luck competing against that Mizzou tuition plan. I think the time has come where universities should abolish their in-state and out-of-state pricing policies and just have one price for any and all who want to attend. Why complicate matters.

sealhall74 wrote:Good luck competing against that Mizzou tuition plan. I think the time has come where universities should abolish their in-state and out-of-state pricing policies and just have one price for any and all who want to attend. Why complicate matters.

They've essentially done that already..at least regionally. Any student from Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, or Wisconsin (at least, as of the 2015/2016 school year) gets in-state tuition.

There have been proposals for having every "domestic" student get the same tuition starting in the 16/17 school year. Nothing official yet though, but I'll keep you updated if it ends up going into effect.

Tere- You described NE Missouri as a one time school going no where-until changes were made. Are those your feelings about WIU- considering your comments on course offerings, and earlier suggestions that the QC campus might become the "main" campus and Macomb become less relevant?

Leatherface,

Yes, I think Western is in trouble.

Starting an FYE program on the basis of the Honor's Pilot that compared Honor's students to non-Honor's students fell less than flat, yet those in charge refused to heed the results as faculty refused the use the freshman book, taking advantage only of the smaller class size. (Gee, any surprise that students who had a HS GPA > 3.5 so they could get into the Honor's program had a higher 1st semester freshman GPA that those who didn't). The effort was developed did not follow the model other schools found so successful, we had to reinvent the wheel, and forgot that it needed to be round to roll. We are closer now, but we still haven't addressed the support students need and the vital aspect of students feeling like they are wanted and belong, something the literature suggests is more than 50% of the equation in whether students graduate.

We add, add, add programs, yet don't cut even when enrollment has consistently declined for 7+ years. Rather that address the issue, Western finds different numbers they can spin in a different manner. Gee, our average ACT went up 1/10th a point.[/list]

Let's face it, Western is not a #1 Choice. Rather than spinning data, make it a # 1 Choice for a sustainable group of students. We used to to that for students not eligible elsewhere through our Special Admissions program, but we cut that from 400/year to <300, and cut the academic support those students receive. In the past, those Special Admits ended up have even slightly better success than the non Special Admits, helping Western live up to it's core value of Opportunity.

I could go one, but what is that really support the core values of Academic Excellence, Educational Opportunity, Personal Growth, and Social Responsibility. Western needs to live it and breathe it everyday so those are just words, but realities, then show that success.