Spring 2019: SIU Carbondale on-campus enrollment drops under 10,000
Pulliam Hall is reflected in a puddle on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019, outside of Pulliam Hall in Carbondale, Illinois.
February 20, 2019
SIU Carbondale’s total spring enrollment is down 11.63 percent – or 1552 students – compared to Spring 2018 enrollment.
“SIU spring enrollment aligns with fall as is typical,” university spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said. “The percentage is slightly better than fall’s decline of 11.96 percent.”
Goldsmith said percentage changes from spring to fall are always fairly close, because most new students start in fall and continue in spring. She said the 11.63 percent decline is not an additional decline but simply reflects Fall’s enrollment numbers.
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“Total spring enrollment is always lower than fall in part because some students graduate in December,” Goldsmith said.
There were 1,253 graduates during the Fall 2018 semester, according to data retrieved from the SIU Registrar’s Office and provided by Jennifer DeHaemers, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management.
9,770 students are taking classes on the Carbondale campus in the Spring 2019 semester, according to data provided by DeHaemers. 10,698 students were enrolled on-campus during the Fall 2018 semester.
On-campus enrollment looks at the amount of students taking classes at the Carbondale campus. Total enrollment looks at students enrolled on the Carbondale campus as well as students taking classes online and in remote locations, such as military bases.On-campus students for the Spring 19 semester, are broken down into 7,089 undergraduate students, 2,092 graduate students, 257 law students, 286 medical students and 46 students who are unclassified, which are generally not degree seeking, according to the data.
Enrollment has seen a decline in the recent past, 12,632 students enrolled in on-campus classes during the Spring 2017 semester and 11,288 students enrolled on-campus during the Spring 2018 semester.
Comparatively, 12,617 students are taking classes on the Edwardsville campus this semester, according to data provided by Doug Mcllhaga, SIUE spokesman.
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SIU Edwardsville saw a 2.7 percent decline, or a decline of 359 students, in on-campus student enrollment compared to the Spring 2018 semester.
“The overall enrollment decline is due to the cumulative effect of enrolling 15 percent fewer new Illinois freshmen and 15 percent fewer Illinois transfers since achieving record overall enrollment in fall 2015,” said Scott Belobrajdic, SIUE associate vice chancellor for enrollment management.
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Andrew Bringaze • Nov 30, 2019 at 10:11 pm
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Glenn Poshard. My goodness, a lot of this, if not all of this mess, was during his glory reign of madness. Talk about bringing in all of his cronies and sucking dry any money and life from this place.
Thomas Thibeault • Oct 30, 2019 at 2:30 pm
When I started working at SIU in 1989 there were 24,000 students. Now enrollment is down to less than half that. In my 23 years at SIU we had 10 chancellors and most administrative positions were occupied by interims. The ongoing demise of SIUC is the result of poor, inept, and inconsistent leadership. Nationally-ranked programs have been watered down and are no longer attractive, graduate assistantships have been slashed, although there were waves of lay-offs there seemed to always be enough money for a new football field or other capital expenditures costing tens of millions even though the student population had been dwindling for decades. The graduation rate is an embarrassing 44% and is the saddest indicator of SIU’s current status. It is appalling and heart-breaking to see what has happened to SIU in the past 30 years. It’s greatest function now is as an example of how poor leadership can turn an institution from thriving to third-rate. Sad, sad, sad.
jeff • Aug 27, 2019 at 6:24 pm
“No one should be surprised by college students choosing SEMO over SIU-C. Just look at the cost – SIU-C tuition and fees is 2x that charged by SEMO. I am surprised that anyone would make that bad monetary decision.”
True.
Can’t blame administration. Been dropping for almost 30 years. It’s a simple situation. Slow growth state, shrinking population in region, tuition higher than out of state schools. Budget problems stemming from Springfield recently. Not hard to understand.
SIU needs to reevaluate its programs and adjust to the lower number of students. This is the fiscally responsible thing to do. Then, look for areas of growth and follow the money. Otherwise, the nearly 30 year trend of declining enrollment will continue.
Brittany M • Aug 26, 2019 at 2:07 pm
I’m a graduate student and I’m thinking about transferring due to the fact that the Financial Aid office takes a really long time to process financial aid. My file has been ready for almost 20 days, every time I call I get the message that it’s waiting for someone to look at it. I applied to two other schools while waiting for the FAO at SIUC to respond. If I leave SIU , my decision will be based on the unprofessional way in which the FAO handles students.
Ken Young • Aug 12, 2019 at 10:02 am
No one should be surprised by college students choosing SEMO over SIU-C. Just look at the cost – SIU-C tuition and fees is 2x that charged by SEMO. I am surprised that anyone would make that bad monetary decision.
John McLuckie, Ph.D. • May 17, 2019 at 11:55 am
I did data collection for my Ph.D. at all of the single district community colleges in Illinois. In that process I found that students knew very little about SIU.
Get a video that shows the SIU campus in the March/April with flowers and trees, and students running around in shorts. Also show the northern Universities in blowing snow. Run the ads on TV with info on how to contact SIU. Also mention the students can get from Chicago to SIU by train.
I have three degrees from SIU, but I am not a loyal Saluki. I am also a past faculty member who was fired because my department chair wanted to teach my robotics and automation classes. But don’t be concerned – he’s dead now!
John McLuckie, Ph.D.
Ken Young • May 14, 2019 at 10:32 am
Does SIU-C even recognize that they have an enrollment problem?
How can tuition/fees at SEMO be half of what SIU-C charges?
Glenn Meinhardt • May 9, 2019 at 4:45 pm
“…since achieving overall record enrollment in 2015”. Is he kidding? Oh, maybe he meant record LOW? Enrollment was over 20,000 when I was there in the nineties. I think as high as 25,000.
John Carson • May 2, 2019 at 2:51 pm
Where is the bottom? SIU is like a crashing stock. It will be a penny stock soon!
ANDREW • Apr 30, 2019 at 5:29 pm
Every time I read about a reduction in student population, which has been happening regularly, the reaction from administration has been universally the same: “oh yeah, that drop was to be expected. We’re not surprised.” Wait. Where is the concern? The urgency? So when population drops to 5,000 will they still be yawning the same “oh yeah, we knew that was coming. That’s normal.” Seems to me the leaders at this institution appear paralyzed by their uncertainty over what to do.
Eric • Apr 24, 2019 at 3:34 pm
Urbana is up to 47,000 students after having set an enrollment record for the 7th consecutive year. I think that’s where SIU’s students are. I graduated from SIUC in 1999 and declining enrollment was a topic back then. I loved my time at SIU and I love Southern Illinois…certainly better than the cornfields that surround Urbana. So it is sad to check in on my alma mater and see this. I’ve talked with people in the community who believe SIUC will be nothing more than a community college in a decade’s time. I hope they can do something to save the wonderful campus and town but I fear they are taking the same lackadaisical attitude they took when enrollment began declining in the 1990s.
Mom of Twin Teens • Apr 15, 2019 at 11:06 pm
We plan to visit Carbondale on Good Friday for an Open House after visiting U of I today. Personally, I HATED the atmosphere of U of I!!! It’s like a mini-Chicago, with all the skyscrapers towering all over the place! UGHH, definitely not the atmosphere I would have envisioned for my teens who will be going to college in the fall. It was crazy, chaotic, and you can’t get around anywhere without needing to hop a bus! I am really hoping that SIU Carbondale will be a refreshing change of pace, and I like the fact already that it is surrounded by the Shawnee National Forest and has a much more manageable enrollment of 10,000 vs. 35,000 and now even your own personal dorm room! Whatever is going on at SIUC, it needs to be addressed because people like me & my teens WANT this school to survive & thrive. Not everyone wants the crazy-big university campus atmosphere. But let’s get to the bottom of what’s causing the decline, and if that means ousting some of the administrators then so be it. Wishing all the best for this school in the future!
Susan R Schroeder • Apr 11, 2019 at 8:59 am
This hearts my heart to see this great institution fall so HARD!!! What the heck happened??? I went to school there from 1975-1979 and the student population was almost equal to the population in Carbondale. This is a “BEAUTIFUL CAMPUS” w/ many outdoor activities, a nice local flavor, etc. Was this bad administrative management ?? What is going on?? The student population is LESS than HALF of what it was when I was there. There is definitely something going on concerning the higher levels of those administrating this school–they are in charge of it”s fate–and I’m sickened to see how they’ve cared for the GEM they had!!!!
Dan • Feb 23, 2019 at 6:51 pm
Chris, I am an SIU grad and employee at ISU. ISU is down less than 200 students this year and has been between 20000-21000 students for the 15 years I’ve been here. As sad as it makes me to see what has happened at SIU (25K students when I was there) this is not a problem at all state schools. Certainly most, but not ISU and UIUC.
DPH • Feb 22, 2019 at 11:53 pm
Responding to Gary, an unspoken factor in said combination may be that better and best performing students don’t want to learn in classes with poor performing students, and they don’t want their degrees from universities with low performing students. It’s a severe problem at SIUC.
Tony Williams • Feb 22, 2019 at 10:54 pm
And we still have a huge amount of sic-figure administrators while student numbers drop as well as an interim Chancellor who still thinks it is “Southern at 150”!
Chris • Feb 22, 2019 at 4:36 pm
EIU is down to only 3,800 on campus students, WIU is down 14% this year. NIU is down. ISU is down. This is not a problem unique to the Carbondale campus, rather a combination of declining state population and tuitions that have skyrocketed, making out of state universities a better value for Illinois high school graduates.
Gary Book ‘70 • Feb 20, 2019 at 4:35 pm
Has anyone done a solid study on why students are not coming to SIUC? Budget mess, a view of safety in CDale, and many other possible reasons? It took decades to build a good reputation and a couple of years to destroy that reputation. Very sad.
Tom Whittington • Feb 20, 2019 at 3:45 pm
What about transfer students. Spring enrollment should be up if we are getting transfer students. The University needs to take a close look at the management in the enrollment areas. We need a new mindset in the Registrar and Transfer departments.