Three colleges experienced a decline in their undergraduate enrollment, although overall SIU enrollment increased by 25 students this semester. 

The College of Education and Human Services, the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts all experienced a drop of more than 5 percent in undergraduate enrollment.

Deans of the colleges attribute the decline to national trends. Total nationwide enrollment decreased by 1.5 percent in fall 2013, after falling 1.8 percent in fall 2012, according to a study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

The College of Education and Human Services is down 6 percent, dropping from 1,625 students in fall 2013, to 1,528 students in fall 2014.

The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is down 5.9 percent, dropping from 760 students in fall 2013, to 715 students in fall 2014.

The College of Liberal Arts is down 10 percent, dropping from roughly 2,400 students in fall 2013, to just under 2,200 students in fall 2014.

“This is nothing new; there has been a trend in the declining enrollment of some of the colleges for a long time,” said Dafna Lemish, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts.

Enrollment has been steadily declining, but Lemish and Keith Wilson, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, said the numbers are still declining but at a slower pace.

“We are down in freshman and transfer students compared to last year,” Wilson said. “But when you look at the last two years, we’re not down as much.”

Jane Swanson, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said the college is still looking over, and making sense of the numbers.

“We’re a very diverse college and we’ve got a wide variety of programs,” she said. “One of the things the university has looked at as a whole is where students are gained and lost. Each of our departments are going to look over their numbers to compare them to what the university is doing.”

Lemish said the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts has the highest retention rate in the university.

“When we do lose students, most of the time, it’s over financial or personal issues, not because they’re unhappy with the program,” she said.

Each dean said they have a different plan in place to reverse the enrollment trends.

Wilson said the College of Education and Human Services is offering students the opportunity to sign up for advising appointments online. The college also started using extended advisement hours last year as well as sending out surveys to students to judge how the college is performing.

The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is focused on making sure programs are up-to-date and relevant to the media field, Lemish said. She said the main concern is preparing students with the skills they need to function across multiple platforms.

Swanson said the College of Liberal Arts is focusing on looking at the experiences of students, and addressing issues causing students to leave the university.

Brent Meske can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brentmeskeDE.