(Editor’s note:This is part three of a four-part series analyzing recruitment and retention policies of the eight SIUC colleges in light of the University’s overall increase in enrollment.)

Two SIUC deans say recruitment and retention efforts in their colleges will not be changed drastically because enrollment in their schools reflects student interest rather than current recruitment and retention initiatives.

The College of Science and College of Business and Administration both had moderate changes in enrollment this semester.

College of Science enrollment dropped from 1,474 to 1,454, a decrease of 20. College of Business Administration enrollment increased from 1,476 to 1,482 this semester, an increase of six.

Jack Parker, dean of the College of Science, said that although his college is active in recruitment policies, sometimes there is low student interest in particular careers.

There’s really nothing you can do if kids out there aren’t interested, Parker said. Some years there is a huge interest in certain careers, and some years there is no interest.

For instance, when I was a kid, everyone wanted to get into engineering after graduation. The same thing happens every year, whether it be medicine, law or any other career.

In the College of Business and Administration, recruitment and retention is pursued actively as well, and there will be little change in current strategies.

Siva Balasubramanian, COBA acting dean, said faculty members and enrolled students are involved in his college’s recruiting and retaining efforts.

Faculty members are extensively involved in widespread recruiting events.

For instance, the chairs of each of our departments and the dean (then Thomas Keon) went to Chicago last year to talk to parents of prospective students, he said.

Through a program called LINX, eight representatives travel to Illinois high schools and community colleges, as well as to Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee to recruit students.

Parker said his college continues recruiting efforts, but retention of enrolled students is more likely to keep College of Science enrollment stable.

Retention, which is done at the program level, is something maybe we can fix, he said.

Parker said part of the difficulty in retaining students is bridging the gap between what new students have learned and what they will need to learn before they enroll in core classes.

We get a lot of students who seem, on paper, prepared to start learning here, he said, but often they have not learned critical information needed to continue studying here, which could lead to a retention problem.

To minimize a potentially steep learning curve, Parker said College of Science advisers recommend lower-level classes that can give students knowledge needed to take more difficult courses.

For example, if a transfer student had taken a course in calculus at another college, the student would be eligible to take a higher-level calculus class. However, the student might not have learned enough in the transferred class to fully understand the higher level class. Therefore, an adviser might recommend a student take a lower-level SIUC calculus class before enrolling in the higher-level class.

COBA has several measures for retaining students at the departmental level, Balasubramanian said.

Last fall in the School of Accountancy, the Principles of Accounting course was divided into three separate one-hour courses to reduce a 50-percent failure rate. Now, students must pass each segment of the course before pursuing the next.

Jim King, associate professor and coordinator for the course, said the failure rate now is about 30 percent.

If students do not pass one segment of the course, they may take it again immediately rather than wait a full semester.

To further support students in the course, King and other instructors who teach Accountancy 220 keep extensive office hours to aid students.

The rule is, any student in any section of the class can come in and talk to any of us that teach the course, King said.

Though King believes breaking the beginning-level course down effectively retains students, he does not recommend the idea for all courses.

It is not a universal panacea, he said. I would never want to teach an upper level course like this.

Each of the departments also have student-to-student programs to keep struggling students in the college. Students make supportive telephone calls and serve as mentors and tutors.

One new plan within the college is to revise its Introduction to Business Management class according to a strategy guide for retention in the college.

The course is normally open to non-business majors, and business majors often are not exposed to business courses until their sophomore or junior years. The revised class will be open to both business and non-business majors, and will be offered to business majors during the students’ freshman year.

The course change is designed to keep business majors from losing interest during their freshman and sophomore years.

Both deans say that their colleges likely will not experience growth spurts or huge drops in enrollment.

Parker said he remains confident that College of Science enrollment will remain stable.

There is always fluctuation, he said. When one part of the college is going down, another part is going up.

COBA’s enrollment has increased for the college the last four years.

We got students here when it was really hard to get students to come to SIU, said Michael Haywood, director of undergraduate recruitment for COBA.

Balasubramanian is optimistic that enrollment will increase in the future.

People can say that increasing by only six students is not very much improvement, he said. But we’re looking at this (recruitment and retention) as a long-term investment.

The success will not be immediate. Rather, it will occur over a period of time as we are building relationships with the students.

In Friday’s Daily Egyptian, part four will analyze the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering.