Chicago State University enrolled just 86 freshmen this fall, an alarming drop as the embattled public institution faces an uncertain future. Overall, the university now has fewer than half the number of total students it did six years ago.

There are 3,578 students taking classes at the Far South Side campus this fall, down from 7,362 students in 2010, according to university figures released Tuesday. The numbers include 2,352 undergraduates and 1,226 graduate students.

While enrollment has been declining for years, the past year has been particularly troubling. Overall enrollment is down 25 percent, and undergraduate enrollment is down 32 percent in one year, the largest decline of any public university in the state.

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The 86 freshmen includes both full-time and part-time students — smaller than a kindergarten cohort at many Chicago Public Schools. The enrollment trends are the latest concern for Chicago State, with some questioning how the public school will survive — and what it might look like.

Students and faculty, desperate to see the historic school survive, are growing disillusioned and losing hope that revival is around the corner.

“I’m having a hard time seeing the future for Chicago State University,” junior Adrian Mercado, a leader in the residence hall, told trustees at a contentious board meeting recently. “How do I talk to my residents and the people that come to me for help all the time about the future of Chicago State University?”

University officials said in a statement the enrollment drop was consistent with their projections when they set their annual budget. Leaders also said the freshmen numbers do not include more than 200 transfer students, although the national standard is to count those groups separately.

“The university continues to focus on improving academic excellence, student experience, increasing enrollment and revenue generation,” officials said in the statement. “We plan to rebuild in 2017.”

In the past year, Chicago State has struggled to survive a state budget battle that left the school without state funding for months — and then only part of what it had expected to receive. The school declared a financial emergency, laid off 40 percent of its employees and cut academic programs and services.

It was sanctioned by its accreditation agency, which warned that the school could lose its accreditation because of the severe financial problems.

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On top of the financial concerns, Chicago State reported a graduation rate of 11 percent. In recent years, the rate had ranged from 13 to 21 percent.

Then, earlier this month, President Thomas Calhoun Jr. was let go after just nine months in the job, with trustees agreeing to pay him $600,000 in severance to leave immediately. Calhoun’s abrupt departure has left students and faculty exasperated by the seemingly never-ending challenges at their school.

Many had viewed Calhoun as the ideal leader to move the school forward. Trustees and Calhoun have refused to say what led to his departure just months into a five-year contract, and the severance agreement prohibits either side from discussing the issue publicly.

“A new leader arrives, a breath of fresh air, a warrior who was ready to lead us into the next era of Chicago State University,” student Christopher Glenn said at the Sept. 16 board meeting where trustees announced Calhoun’s departure. “So we go from exciting new era in January, to the end of an era in September. In nine months, we go from fighting a war as a collective, to the war being on the inside.”

Its history and future

The situation wasn’t always this dire for the nearly 150-year-old public university, one of the oldest higher education institutions in the state.

Chicago State started in 1867 as a teacher training school in Blue Island. Three years later, as Cook County Normal School, it set up its first permanent campus in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The school was renamed Chicago State University in 1971, and the campus relocated to its current 161-acre site in the Roseland neighborhood in late 1972.

From its roots as a training ground for aspiring teachers, Chicago State now has about two dozen departments across five colleges, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

It serves a unique student population: More than 70 percent of the undergraduates are black, and more than half are at least 25 years old. The majority of students are women. Nearly half of the students have at least one child. Most are low-income.

Its graduate pharmacy program is a point of pride. Of the 37 black students in Illinois who received doctoral degrees in pharmacy in 2014, 26 had graduated from Chicago State.

But long before the current financial instability, the university was plagued for years by internal scandals and financial mismanagement. It lost a high-profile whistleblower suit, with damages now exceeding $5 million, and has faced criticism for hefty raises for high-ranking administrators and misspent grant money.

Problems persist with basic oversight and accounting, according to the most recent reviews from the Illinois auditor general. Two audits examining the 2014-15 school year revealed that employees were getting paid leave and sick leave they were not entitled to; dozens of computers and other equipment were missing; an abnormally high rate of students were defaulting on federal loans; and employees were being hired without their resumes being vetted.

In addition to the institution’s internal problems, the budget standoff in Springfield pushed Chicago State further into peril. While all the state’s public college and universities were without state appropriations for most of the last school year, the stalemate put Chicago State in a particularly perilous situation. The school receives about 30 percent of its revenue from the state and has little private fundraising or reserves to fall back on.

To cope this year, Chicago State cut its budget for the current year by 30 percent, to $70 million. As recently as 2013, the university’s budget was more than double that amount.

With about 400 employees laid off this year, students are feeling the impact. The number of library staff has been cut in half, and the library is only open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Only three employees work in the admissions department, down from seven at the beginning of the year. There are other signs of hardship.

The campus’ only residence hall was without hot water for at least two weeks this fall. Students also have complained the campus cafeteria had been closed for several days, and offers a paltry selection of food when it is opened.

“We are disheartened by the state of our campus,” student trustee Paris Griffin said at the September board meeting.

Karen J. Smith, a senior studying communications, media, art and theater, said the issues threatening the school’s stability are dispiriting.

“It makes me feel sad for our community,” said Smith, 53, of the South Chicago neighborhood. “I can leave. Other students, they can’t leave. If this is gone, what hope do they have?”

Enrollment challenges

Now, with the release of the latest enrollment figures, Chicago State’s challenges seem to have come to a head in one of the more troubling ways — very few new students. There are 1,200 fewer students enrolled now compared with this time last year, according to school data.

Student populations have declined every year since the most recent peak in 2010.

In six years, total enrollment is down 51 percent and undergraduate enrollment is down 58.5 percent. The steep declines are not entirely unexpected, but still greater than predicted.

Calhoun told the Tribune this summer he expected enrollment to drop about 20 percent. And to be sure, other regional public universities also are facing enrollment declines this fall, at least somewhat tied to the state budget crisis.

Eastern Illinois University, for example, is down 25 percent in its number of first-time freshmen students this year, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale also has about 24 percent fewer freshmen.

But at Northeastern Illinois University, on Chicago’s Northwest Side, which also serves many low-income, first-generation college students, freshmen enrollment grew to more than 800 students, up from 748 last year.

For Chicago State, the coming months will be crucial to the school’s future. By December, Chicago State leaders must show the school’s accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission, that the institution’s financial status has improved.

Agency officials plan to visit the campus again in spring and decide if further penalties need to be imposed or if the sanction can be lifted.

State funding remains uncertain, with no funding earmarked for 2017. And the school’s leadership is in flux.

Trustees appointed Cecil Lucy, the university’s vice president for administration and finance, as the interim president. It is not clear whether Chicago State will launch another search for a permanent president.

In the wake of Calhoun’s exit, many students and faculty have called on trustees to resign or for Gov. Bruce Rauner to dismiss them. Four board members’ terms expire in January, and Rauner has said his team is considering replacements.

A spokeswoman said Lucy was not available for an interview, and he did not respond to an email seeking comment. Board Chairman Anthony Young did not respond to requests for comment.

“My students are hurt,” said senior Darren Martin, president of the student government association. “Their morale is down. Now the question becomes: How do we fix that? Because right now, they’re broken.”

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(c) 2016 the Chicago Tribune

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