After roughly a decade of declining enrollment at the university’s off-campus military bases, the continual drop will soon be on the upswing.

The university’s off-campus military programs are projected to increase by roughly 25 percent this summer, compared to summer 2013.

Gayla Stoner, director of distance education and off-campus programs, said she will be excited to see enrollment jump.

“This time last year we had 182 students registered on military locations, and this year we have 243 at the same time,” Stoner said. “This is huge.”

Chancellor Rita Cheng said the increase in off-campus enrollment can be attributed to improving academics and creating a flat tuition rate across all off-campus programs.

She said the previous pricing structure was not tuition, but rather a fee that could not be supported by financial aid. She said because of this, a serviceman or servicewoman’s spouse, child or extended family could not apply for financial aid if enrolled in SIU programs.

“(The fee rather than tuition) was completely outside the SIU structure,” she said. “So the structure that we put in place was our standard tuition that you would be charged here on the campus.”

Stoner said tuition is now $355.87 per credit hour with fees, and the military reimburses active members $250 per credit hour.

She said the university also offers the Active Duty Military Scholarship, a scholarship of $100 per credit hour, to bring tuition costs down to the original fee.

Cheng said because the original $250 program was classified as a fee, military students did not qualify for as many scholarships.

She said the military programs were operating with a deficit and if off-campus military base tuition did not increase, on-campus tuition would.

Cheng said when the Department of Defense’s third party assessment report was released in August 2012, the university realized some off-campus programs required attention as the DOD raised several concerns.

“Because of the lack of oversight and accountability at the various bases of the SIU employees, we knew we had to do something to address the situation,” Cheng said.

Stoner said to improve the programs, all off-campus staff liaisons were brought to the university for on-site training for the first time in fall 2012 and again in 2013.

Cheng said because active military students may move from base to base, programs must be flexible. Compared to other programs, she said SIU’s was not as flexible.

To make the programs more flexible, an online Virtual Student Service was created with a $16,000 grant awarded by the American Council on Education. Stoner said with the service, military men and women can take courses online while deployed to different locations.

“There were only six institutions in the country that were actually awarded this grant; so we’re very proud of that,” she said.

From fall 2012 to fall 2013, web-based distance learning increased by 241 students. 

Stoner said a specific department, as opposed to an organized system, ran each base.

“(Instructors) had different titles, different practices, lack of training,” she said.

While enrollment is projected to rise, several staff members have criticized the tuition increases.

An instructor at one of the bases, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the increases have caused many military men and women to leave the workforce education and development programs.

“We at SIU raised our tuition in the course of three straight semesters,” he said. “I mean everybody quit, everybody in the military went the other direction.”

He said the university has lost a lot of money as military personnel chose other universities because of the increases.

“We left a lot of money on the table and we have people who will never come back,” he said.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @lukenozicka, or at 536-3311 ext. 286.