SIUC could lose its status as an international university within three years because of plummeting international student enrollment unless the cost of out-of-state tuition for such students is decreased, top University administrators told the SIU Board of Trustees Thursday.

Both SIUC Chancellor Donald Beggs and SIU President Ted Sanders painted a bleak picture of SIUC’s current international enrollment for the board, and requested that the cost of tuition be lowered from three times the amount of in-state enrollment to two times that amount for international and out-of-state students.

To bolster their arguments, Sanders and Beggs presented enrollment data to the board depicting a decline in international students over a five-year time.

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The data showed that international enrollment for undergraduate students has decreased from 1,117 in fall 1994 to 684 in fall 1997, a decrease of 433. International graduate student enrollment decreased 101 students from 684 in fall 1994 to 583 in fall 1997.

If we continue the current trend of a loss of 100 to 125 students each year, then this data becomes even more frightening in terms of its impact, Beggs told the board. With this decline in enrollment, we are losing our ability to define ourselves as an international University.

Our international enrollment is important to us in our quest of being an international university, he said. And when we look at this data, it becomes even more apparent that we should revisit this.

Under the proposal, international and out-of-state tuition would be cut from three times the tuition costs of in-state students to two times that cost by fall 1999.

In fall 1998, students transferring from SIU’s Nakajo campus would pay the lower cost.

Sanders said the reason for this is that administrators at Nakajo have expressed concern that transfer students from Nakajo have difficulty paying three times the tuition of in-state students.

In their judgment, our current practice is unfair to Japanese students who transfer to SIUC to complete their degree, he said.

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Board member Molly D’Esposito also cited the benefit of lower tuition for out-of-state students who live near the Illinois border.

Both Sanders and Beggs also indicated the lower tuition level will make the University more competitive with other Illinois universities.

However, both Beggs and Sanders also cautioned the board that the University’s tuition fund will be effected by the change, but that SIUC and SIUE have stepped up recruitment of international students, specifically in Asia and the Pacific Rim and at California community colleges with an excessive amount of international students.

Sanders said because the policy would go into effect in 1999, it would give the University time to increase their international and out-of-state enrollment.

The reason we are doing that is to use this time in marketing and recruiting to offset some or all of that cost, he said.

Donald Wilson, vice president for University services and board treasurer, said there is no guarantee that decreasing tuition will increase enrollment.

For years we’ve looked at what is the elasticity of demand for tuition and enrollment and there is some elasticity, but no one has it to an exact science, and it’s more of a kind of art, he said. But one can only assume that going from 3-to-1 to 2-to-1 will have a positive impact on any elasticity out there.

Wilson said, however, that decreasing the tuition does make sense.

If we could have maintained the fall 1994 enrollment, which is a big if, than we would have had more revenue at 2-to-1 than we have now at 3-to-1, he said. So if we can curtail the decline there would be an offset.

No board members voiced opposition to the proposal, and the board will vote on the proposal in its February meeting.

In other business, the board listened to a report by Intercollegiate Athletics Director Jim Hart on the academic status of SIUC athletes.

Trustee Bill Norwood expressed concern about the number of African-American athletes who graduate from SIUC.

It appears as if African-American males don’t do as well, Norwood said.

Hart agreed and said that the Athletics Department is working on numerous methods of aiding such students.

Norwood recommended the Athletics Department adopt a policy to enforce athletes to attend class or be barred from playing in games. He said such a policy would provide incentive for athletes to attend class.

It boggles the mind that if a student does not attend practice he can’t play in a game, Norwood said raising his voice. But if you don’t go to class, then you can play in the game. It boggles the mind.

Hart responded by saying that enforcing such a policy would be extremely difficult, and that a year-old policy in which the Athletics Department monitors GPA per semester may yet prove adequate.

Monitoring class attendance is not the easiest thing to do, he said. We just don’t have the personnel, and professors don’t always want to be pestered about whether a student attended class or not..

No action was taken on the presentation or Norwood’s questions.