Enrollment Updates

General Campus News, Updates, Discussion
wiu712
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WIU sees largest freshman class in five years, overall enrollment climbs.
From WGEM-TV News:
https://www.wgem.com/2022/09/13/wiu-see ... nt-climbs/
 
 
wiu712
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WIU hopeful for 3% increase in new freshman, aim to increase retention.
From WGEM News:
https://www.wgem.com/2022/12/05/wiu-hop ... retention/
 
 
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ST_Lawson
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The Illinois Board of Higher Ed put out a report on enrollment at the public universities in the state. You can read it here: https://www.ibhe.org/datapoints/pdf/IBH ... 022-23.pdf

Most of this isn't really new...for data going back a while, I've been tracking all universities back to 2005 and a few for a few years before that:


But, there was something interesting in Table 2 on page 4, Dual Credit/Dual Enrollment. The combined total of all state universities Dual Credit enrollment minus EIU is 316. EIU's is 2,325.
Dual Credit/Enrollment is usually HS students taking low-level college courses, but I'm not quite sure how EIU is counting things to have such a huge number of them.
 
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wiu712
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WIU spring enrollment sits steady around 7,000 students.
From WGEM News:
https://www.wgem.com/2023/02/02/wiu-spr ... -students/
 
 
wiu712
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New Freshmen and New Transfer Student Headcount Up at WIU for Spring Enrollment.
http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=18986

 
34blast
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I visited WIU for the first time in about 20 years this year.    I moved to Texas after graduation.   Western was a great place and maybe still is.  I guess Illinois is a messed up state at least budget wise.  Amazing how the place I loved has shrunk so much.

In Texas it seems every educational institution is constantly growing.     So I was shocked to see
1).  Quad taken offline,  in the 80s it was full.  so shocking to have those large buildings offline or demolished
2).  Higgins demolished.  It was my dorm junior year,  great location.  My room looked over the creek, trees,  walkway
3).  Overall from the 80s the place is like a ghost town on campus.   So many fewer people
4).  Low attendance at football and they sucked
5).  Union,  where is the bowling alley and movie theater?
6).  Down university by 67 nothing left
7).  Significant closures at restaurants and bars in town.  A few trusty old places still there,  but overall the whole city looks like it is suffering



 
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ST_Lawson
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34blast wrote: Sat May 13, 2023 1:17 am I visited WIU for the first time in about 20 years this year.    I moved to Texas after graduation.   Western was a great place and maybe still is.  I guess Illinois is a messed up state at least budget wise.  Amazing how the place I loved has shrunk so much.

In Texas it seems every educational institution is constantly growing.     So I was shocked to see
1).  Quad taken offline,  in the 80s it was full.  so shocking to have those large buildings offline or demolished
2).  Higgins demolished.  It was my dorm junior year,  great location.  My room looked over the creek, trees,  walkway
3).  Overall from the 80s the place is like a ghost town on campus.   So many fewer people
4).  Low attendance at football and they sucked
5).  Union,  where is the bowling alley and movie theater?
6).  Down university by 67 nothing left
7).  Significant closures at restaurants and bars in town.  A few trusty old places still there,  but overall the whole city looks like it is suffering
 
Here's some info I posted elsewhere that pretty much explains the situation...

2002 was the high point for us for receiving money from the state. This year's proposed budget bumps us up 7% over last year, which is nice, but still 13.4% less than we got in 2002. That's in actual dollars though...that doesn't count inflation. Take inflation into account, and we're receiving 48.5% what we did in 2002. I don't know how much of that was going towards athletics, but I know our enrollment is also down 43.2% from 2002 to last fall, which means 43.2% fewer students paying fees that some portion of which goes towards athletics.

Based on when the funding decreases were happening and when our enrollment was dropping, it looks quite likely that the enrollment was dropping as a result of less funding. Less funding means higher tuition, fewer improvements, and less money for maintenance and staff.
Funding started heading downhill in 2002; enrollment started heading downhill in 2006.
Funding dropped off a cliff during the state budget crisis starting in 2015 and going through 2017; enrollment dropped off a cliff from 2016 to around 2019.
Funding was solidified after the crisis, was increased in FY 2022, and is proposed to increase in the FY 2024 budget (fiscal year starts July 1); enrollment was static in Fall 2021 (FY 2022) and increased 2.5% in Fall 2022 (FY 2023).

I know we're not the only ones in the same boat, public university funding nationwide has been decreasing, but for a smaller school that is traditionally a "teacher's college", we don't have a lot of research money or wealthy donors to help supplant the loss of state funds.
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34blast
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Thanks for explanation 
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Western_101
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Western Illinois University Fall 2023 10 day enrollment : 7,073 :shock:
 

Amber Evans was exposed and subsequently jettisoned. However, her smoke and mirrors did a good enough job to artificially (artificial in the sense that certainly, knowingly, people were enrolled that had no business being enrolled) inflate the numbers for a couple years, giving a false indication that declining enrollment had been addressed and the university was now on an upward trajectory. 

Of course we all know now that many of the students admitted were either incapable of successfully navigating the academic landscape and rigors expected of a college student or had no intention whatsoever to even try!(as in not even bothering to go to class). I know that there are less students graduating from high schools and that the percentage that choose to matriculate to college is also down. We need to be creative and have students want to come here. As we are witnessing lowering the bar by letting 2.25 GPA students and no ACT/SAT requirement walk right in ensures terrible retention rates. It also serves to damage the university's reputation and prestige which further undermines the ability to attract students let alone the desirable ambitious high achieving segment.

Ms. Evans was able to parlay this BS into what looked like an attractive and qualified LinkedIn resume that Wisconsin-Oshkosh gobbled up.  She was subsequently the candidate of choice for an open position.  She is now the Associate vice chancellor of Enrollment Management. 

Meanwhile, Western was left to sift through the mess she left behind.  Enrollment for this Fall term is DOWN 7.5%. 

I believe we have the right person in place with Kirk Dillard. I suspected the numbers would get worse before they got better. Taking on huge institutional issues like this was long overdue. I hope that this Fall's enrollment numbers represent the bottom out phase and that with improvements on recruiting the right students and RETAINING THEM our beloved WESTERN will begin to flourish once again. 

Western should aspire to be a moderately selective regional university targeting high school students with 2.8-3.8 GPA and (ACT/SAT) 20/1040 - 28/1300  Western should be renowned in some signature programs. Western should provide a student with fun activities and the opportunity to explore extracurricular clubs/groups, time spent at college should be dynamic and spur growth as an individual. Western should offer student athletes and fans NCAA D-I quality facilities that allow sports teams and the athletes a comparable environment to peer institutions to be competitive and prevail in games/matches.

I believe WESTERN once upon a time was all things that I listed. Is it possible to become what we once were? 
 
 
Last edited by Western_101 on Wed Sep 13, 2023 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ST_Lawson
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Western_101 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 12:27 pmI believe WESTERN once upon a time was all things that I listed. Is it possible to become what we once were?
 
Honestly...without significant increases in state investment...I'd say highly unlikely. Not impossible, but highly improbable.
Better funding helps the facilities look better which helps instill pride in the institution, confidence in it's stability and longevity, and allows the university to provide the services that students need and want. All of that will make it more likely that students who have a range of similar options choose to come here.
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