Doing Something - A Comprehensive Plan to work with

Doing Something: A Comprehensive Plan for Timely Improvements in Enrollment,

Recruitment, Retention, Student Successes, Improved Morale and Pride

Simply email the SIU Board of Trustees at mistyw@siu.edu, a single email, requesting immediate implementation of the SIDoingSomething comprehensive plan. Thank you.

Outline

A.        Reduce tuition and fees

B.         Tuition Waivers for High-Performing Graduating High School Seniors

C.         Center for Cross-Cultural Student Success

D.        Return to 60 credits required for transfer students to SIUC

E.         Waive $40.00 application fee

F.         Bold Enhanced Advertising content and venues

G.        A 2% reduction to all SIUC salaries that exceed $150,000.00

H.        Additional factors to consider

I.          Thoughts from members of the university and regional communities

A. Reduce Tuition and Fees.

Enrollment has dropped consistently since 1991 in direct correlation to SIUC’s increases in fees and tuition.

Graph prepared by Dr. Mohammad R. Sayeh, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering-SIUC

New freshmen enrollment in Fall 2017 was down to 1,718 and a total enrollment of 14,554. Our Fall 2018 enrollment is right at 12,817, with a total 9,447 undergraduates.

Since 2006, SIUC’s tuition rose 56% and our fees more than 120%.⁸  Illinois is number one in states whose residents leave their home state to pursue higher education. The number of Illinois freshman students enrolling in universities outside the state has jumped 73 percent since 2000, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.¹⁰

The IBHE’s Deputy Director of Information Management and Research recently wrote that the Number One reason students leave Illinois for higher education is their conclusions they pay more to stay in Illinois.¹¹ Practically every source identifies cost as among the top three considerations for choosing a university. The IBHE’s Deputy Director of Information Management and Research says the solution is an affordable in-state option. Focus on reducing tuition and fees to expeditiously jump-start enrollment.¹¹

Indiana University, SEMO, Iowa, Universities of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wisconsin are all less expensive than SIUC in combined tuition and fees. 

Tuition and Fees Comparisons

	In-state Tuition and Fees 2017
Indiana University	10,534.00
Iowa University	9,189.00
SEMO	7,185.00
SIU Carbondale	13,481.00
University of Kentucky	11,772.00
University of Tennessee	12,970.00
University of Wisconsin	10,533.00

SIUC has not had a reduction in tuition and fees in more than 20 years. We had 24,000 students on campus in 1990-91, when combined tuition and fees were $1,083. The average tuition among 316 ranked public universities in 2016 was $8,893. Our actual fees and tuition in 2016 were $13,480.54.

This plan adjusts tuition and fees at the same time other factors are put into place so that funding is not impaired, but enhanced; this is one reason it must be a comprehensive plan. SIUC must reduce tuition by $2,000.00 per student for incoming freshmen whose high-school GPAs are less than 3.5 and for transfer-to SIUC students. In Fall 2017, there were 1,319 incoming freshmen and 1,510 transfer students to SIUC, for a total of 2,829 students.

A $2,000 reduction in fees and tuition for incoming freshmen and transfer students would create a shortfall of $5,658,000, based on Fall 2017 numbers. However, this comprehensive plan will generate incoming funds from students that would not otherwise be on campus of more than $8,000,000. A reduction to $11,481 per student for each new freshman and new transfer student to SIUC, properly marketed, would go a long way to improving enrollment.

Recognizing that many things need to be accomplished, shoring up enrollment needs to take priority over others. Implementing a plan to lower fees and tuition in no way ignores that additional ideas exist to remedy problems we identify at the university. At this time, in this place, we simply must pursue a strategic plan to lower tuition and fees to jump-start enrollment.

More than 50% of Illinois residents are leaving Illinois to attend universities in other states. Not only do college students contribute to state and local economies through their tuition and daily living expenditures while attending college, a majority who attend colleges in other states are less likely to return to their home state to live and work after graduation. Students who attend college in Illinois are more likely to stay in Illinois after graduation.

For example, in 2000, Illinois lost 4,781 students to other states.⁵ That out-migration of 4,781 students equated to an estimated lifetime loss of $776,400,930 in tax revenue (income and sales tax) to the State of Illinois. The benefit to Illinois and its taxpayers is significant when we seek methods to increase and retain students at SIUC.

When considering parts A and B of this comprehensive plan, consider that Chicago City Colleges already have in place the Star Scholarship Program. Chicago City Colleges provide free tuition to Chicago public high school seniors who graduate with a 3.0 or higher GPA, if the student has an ACT of 17 or better in English and math or an SAT score of 460 in writing and 440 in math. That means such students from more than 100 Chicago public high schools are getting their first two years of college free if they attend one of the Chicago City Colleges.

B.  Tuition Waivers for Highest Performing Graduating High School Seniors and throughout.

SIU Carbondale should immediately appeal to the highest performing high school seniors both inside and outside of Illinois, at least a 3.5 grade point average and a 32 ACT or 1400 SAT score. SIUC should clearly communicate to each that their strong scholastic performances have earned them full tuition waivers coming into SIUC, free tuition, and for each subsequent year as well as long as their GPAs are sustained at 3.5 or higher. This would apply to both in-state and out-of-state students.

The classes being taught at SIU Carbondale can certainly accommodate more students. Placing more students within the classes would not require instructors to prepare any differently for class.  The additional work would be a value that instructors would embrace in terms of grading and performance because instructors love grading work from and working with high performing students.

The successes from this methodology are well-defined by looking at the model implemented by the University of Alabama, which has been drawing vast numbers of Illinois students to them and away from Illinois. The University of Alabama began doing this several years ago, and has seen huge successes. The University of Alabama awarded 203 full-tuition scholarships/waivers to freshmen Illinoisans in 2017.¹⁰ In 2017, the average high school GPA of incoming freshmen was 3.72; one-third of students had 4.0; more than 40% of the class scored a 30 or higher on their ACTs.¹⁰

Now here is the rest of the story. Even with tuition covered, students continue to pay for room and board and other expenses. These students continue to contribute to the local economy. These students persist through graduation. Many additional incoming freshmen follow their high-performing friends; if from out-of-state and they do not meet the academic waiver bar, they are nevertheless provided in-state tuition. Word-of-mouth advertising increases exponentially; students recommend the university to their neighbors and friends looking at colleges.¹⁰

A decade ago, 147 Illinoisans were enrolled in Tuscaloosa. That number hit 1,623 last fall.¹⁰ More than 700 Illinoisans from 193 cities made their President’s and Dean’s lists at Alabama, earning at least a 3.5 GPA for Fall 2017.¹⁰   According to Caroline Ward of Mokena, who received the Alabama scholarship/waiver, “Illinois colleges, the in-state tuition is so expensive, students are looking for those scholarships, and they’re going to take them wherever they could get them.”

For the second consecutive year, in Fall 2017, the University of Alabama at Birmingham has achieved record enrollment, growing its student body to 20,902 — an increase of 1,367 students from last year’s record enrollment of 19,535.¹² The nearly 7 percent increase in overall enrollment was fueled by growth in every school in addition to the College of Arts and Sciences and Honors College.¹² UAB also enrolled 2,299 freshmen, its largest class, representing an increase of almost 14 percent over last year’s record class of 2,021.¹² The freshman class is UAB’s most academically prepared, with an average ACT of 25.1 and average high school GPA of 3.66.¹²  UAB President Ray L. Watts established enrollment as a strategic priority when he became president in 2013, and he set a goal to have 20,000 students enrolled by 2018 — a goal that has now been exceeded a year early by nearly a thousand students.¹²

C.         Center for Cross-Cultural Student Success.

Purpose:

The Center for Cross-Cultural Student Academic Success shall be an active, contemporaneous, comprehensive support system for at-risk students, including, but not limited to, an emphasis on recognition of diverse cultural needs of varied races, ethnicities, and genders. Established programs and resources will benefit all undergraduate students in significant ways, taking care not to be used or viewed as culturally divisive or restrictive.

Foundations of Recruitment and Retention Strategies:

The Census Bureau has forecast that the U.S. will have majority-minority population by 2043.¹  In August, the National Center for Educational Statistics reported that, for the in 2014, the total percentage of minority students – Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans combined – is larger than the percentage of whites in public grade-school classrooms.¹  Non-white Latinos have already surpassed African-Americans as the nation’s largest minority.¹  

Young people seeking higher education today are more likely to be Hispanic, maybe the first person in their families to continue an education past high school.¹  In 2015, 65% of the Chicago City College Star Scholarships when to Hispanic students from more than 100 Chicago public schools, each with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Women now make up about 57% of all college students compared to around 40% in the 1970s. Just 37% of black undergraduates are males.¹

Latinos and African-Americans are more likely to need extra help upon entering universities.¹  At risk students can no longer be defined only from things most commonly thought of, things like ADHD, but from a wide variety of traumas unique to cultural family histories, neighborhoods, and financial inequalities. 

Restructuring admissions requirements at universities must be pursued, together with remediation efforts to bring students from under-performing schools up to speed.¹  Freshmen remediation rates may be as high as 50 to 60 percent. These students need more general support and should be getting it.¹ The answer to the demographic changes and challenges that lie ahead must come from the colleges themselves.¹

Standardized tests are not predictors of academic success for at-risk minority students. Study after study has reinforced this insight. Nevertheless, admission policies at SIUC (and many other colleges and universities) still use the standardized test for acceptance, placement and monitoring of minority students. We must actively restructure the application process. This should include looking alternatively at letters of recommendation from teachers and advisors and students’ involvements in extra-curricular activities. We should encourage personal statements from the potential students themselves. Admissions experts have long maintained that the whole dynamic of standardized testing is less predictive than claimed, even as it helps to create a form of parity.

Students have individualized learning styles, and pedagogical strategies should take these different styles into consideration. We must identify and be prepared to assist students with dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other factors that affect one’s ability to learn. We should be prepared to make targeted use of videos and films, alternative class presentations, and oral examinations. Another strategy for improving academic outcomes may be to institute, where appropriate, different pedagogies in the beginning composition classes. Many minority students are only practiced in putting on paper what they hear, as correct discourse. Too often, they are then judged as being “dumb” or “under-prepared,” when in fact they have never been gifted with access to traditional compositional techniques. 

We should prioritize hiring additional competent, well-trained intercultural staff trained in counseling clients who manifest behaviors associated with post-traumatic stress disorders. It is essential that the students and the Center for Cross-Cultural Success staff share a cultural history. There are too many young people raised in urban area with high incidence of gun-related violence, gross injuries, and deaths; places where environmental pollution can negatively affect learning outcomes; where sub-standard public education creates insecurities and stress that have detrimental effects on successful learning and social interactions.  We can address these handicaps, if we choose to. These are also among the top factors we must prioritize for many military veterans admitted to SIUC.

Word of mouth will be our best advertising. SIU Carbondale will be the state university that provides a model for success to culturally diverse students.

Historical Perspective:

SIU has traditionally welcomed students – many of them first-generation college students – from all 50 states and from more than 100 foreign countries.  International students and students of color make up 23.5 percent of SIU’s total enrollment. Retention has not always kept in step with recruitment as the graduation rate for students of color continues to be far below their white counterparts.

When student enrollment was in the range of 23,000 students, programs such as The Center for Academic Success (formerly the Center for Basic Skills) were fully funded and staffed. Peer advising; staff mentoring; monitoring of academic progress for all academically at-risk students were the hallmarks of the programs. The CAS had a sophomore return rate of 77% -- which was also true of the once very successful Minority Engineering Program.

These programs have either disappeared entirely or have been so severely reduced in staffing and budgets that they are marginalized and ineffective. Recent efforts do not appear to have strong ties with each other and appear disconnected from other minority serving programs on campus. There are several academic units on the campus that provide opportunities for staff and faculty to acquire “diversity training,” but such opportunities are scarce, and there is no indication that these opportunities are more than voluntary or occasional.

The Black Resource Center, Hispanic Resource Center, and LGLBT Resource Center were recently “folded into” a Student Multicultural Resource Center, which is placed on the first floor of the Student Services Building. Although it is being promoted as doing something more, it does not really do anything more than each did individually. The SMRC houses in name a Black Resource Center, Hispanic/Latino Resource Center, LGBTQ Resource Center, and Women’s Resource Center into a single office, a single location. Each “center” continues to do the more general activities each had done on its own before being relocated. So far, about the only thing added is an opportunity for students to make up to ten (10) copies of something if they come to the office.

There are many minority-serving RSOs on the SIUC campus that are related to academic standing (“Blacks in Business”, “Minority Engineering”,  “National Association of Black Journalists”, “Blacks in Psychology”, etc.).  There are also a number of minority-serving Greek organizations that are fairly active on campus and in the community. These organizations serve as support groups or interest groups that offer support and networking for their members.

Going Forward and Upward:

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has an expressed commitment to diversity and multiculturalism. This commitment is underscored in the mission statement that reads “...Enrolling students throughout Illinois, across the United States and internationally, SIUC actively promotes the intellectual and social benefits of cultural pluralism, encourages the participation of nontraditional groups, and intentionally provides a cosmopolitan and general education context that expands students’ cultural competencies and leads to superior undergraduate education.”

Instituting a Center for Cross-Cultural Student Success in line with the models of the once-successful programs is the highest priority. Center personnel will be employed with an eye towards emulating diverse races within the student population. At risk students will be directed to use the Center each week from day one. The Center will be housed with folks trained to assist students but also who come from cultures similar to the students so that the students will actually connect with those there to help them. We will employ at reasonable rates folks that are black, brown, Hispanic, Latin, Asian, White, Native American, Pacific Islanders,
LGBTQ, etc., so that students using the services can relate and feel at home in our community.

Counseling services offered by the Office of Student Health should have programs to test for learning disabilities and for the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder.  These programs should be available to students without there being a fee-for-testing.

Mid-term grades for all 1^st-year (“Freshman”) students will be mandatory. The Center will carefully monitor the first-semester mid-term grades and provide special mentoring personal attention to any student receiving more than two grades of “C” or lower.  Appointments will be made for such students to meet with Center personnel. Efforts will be made for students to meet with personnel each student is more likely to relate to on a cultural level.

Any student with three or more grades of “C” (or lower) will be advised to consider appropriate testing, to determine if there were special considerations that would negatively affect the student’s learning abilities. Other counseling and advising opportunities would also be suggested – most especially frequent, regular interactions with Center staff, including peer advisors.

One goal of the Center will be for campus participants to connect with as many in our region as possible to establish opportunities through discussions, trainings, presentations, activities, and the like to assist the wider population within our region to overcome a prevalent perception that multicultural, diverse persons within our university society are not welcome. More frequent, regular interactions can breed truly positive relationships that lead to a long-term welcoming environment.

The Center would be a key player in the development and delivery of a Cultural Competency Training Program for staff and faculty rooted in the Inclusive Excellence model to facilitate the systemic infusion of cultural awareness on campus. This model intentionally shifts from depending exclusively on things like food fairs and annual festivals as the limited approach to diversity, even as those at least encourage tolerance.

Inclusive Excellence (IE) is a philosophical framework that “seeks to bring about comprehensive educational reform” (Williams, Berger, & McClendon, 2005, p.viii) with regard to institutional commitment to diversity. The most unique aspect of IE is the purposeful positioning of diversity at the core of an institution’s pursuit of excellence (Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005). In essence, issues related to diversity are not considered secondary to the mission and goals of the university, nor are they the sole responsibility of a single office.

Rather, to achieve institutional excellence, an institution must intentionally make systemic changes that will foster collaboration and commitment toward the end goal of inclusion across and among cultural differences. Furthermore, when positioned at the core, issues of diversity, including, but not limited to, identity/identities, representation, campus climate, etc., are centered as important with regard to multiple campus stakeholders including students, staff, faculty, and administration. For instance, advocating for the appeal of IE with specific regard to students, Clayton-Pedersen (2009) says:

…the academy must recognize diversity and inclusion as essential to educational excellence. All that students are—their gender, racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic and class status, sexual orientation, religion, physical and mental abilities—influences teachers’ expectations of their students’ capabilities and students’ beliefs about their own potential. (p.1)

Inclusive Excellence is rooted in democratic principles including, but not limited to, opportunity, fairness, equality, human dignity, and social justice. The basic commitments of IE include (a) getting beyond the achievement of diversity solely as representation, (b) marking diversity as a means to heightened learning, and (c) simultaneously focusing on the intellectual and social development of students (Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005; Williams, Berger, & McClendon, 2005).  Additional benefits for using this model include (a) being attentive to multiple identity groups that are present on campus, (b) generating social consciousness at micro and macro levels of the institution, (c) adopting a proactive rather than reactive stance toward issues related to diversity, (d) fostering joint commitment to diversity among faculty and administration, and, (e) creating accountability around working toward IE. 

Excellence in Community Relationships/Partnerships

Carbondale and the surrounding communities have a number of community and non-profit agencies, social service agencies, as well as governmental and related entities that could be excellent resources for Inclusive Excellence initiatives.  SIU Carbondale is a major source of the diversity within southern Illinois thus providing opportunities to synchronize and leverage its diversity offerings with the needs of the community.

A function of the Community Relationships/Partnerships section of the Center for Cross-Cultural Student success is to identify and encourage participations in inclusive excellence resources within the southern Illinois community. The Center will also seek for ways and means of harmonizing the university’s offerings with the needs of the broader regional community. The center will seek opportunities for volunteering and service learning.

Develop a plan to increase/enhance the relationships and understanding of businesses, city, and community agencies with students of myriad cultures.  Develop an Inclusive Excellence Community Partnership recognition award. Develop criteria on which community partners (noted above) may be assessed and/or awarded on a bi-annual basis, the Community Partnership Award for Inclusive Excellence.

Some Short/Long Term Teaching, Research, and Learning Goals:

·         Mandatory training for the entire campus community in Inclusive Excellence.

·         Inclusion of the goal of Inclusive Excellence in the mission statement of the University.

·         Development of “an Excellence through Commitment Award” for Inclusive Excellence.

·         Addition of Inclusive Excellence competency as part of annual faculty/staff evaluations.

·         Incorporation of Inclusive Excellence into department/college operating papers.

·         Incorporation of Inclusive Excellence in student course evaluation forms.

·         Inclusive Excellence should be made a vital part of internal/external program reviews.

·         Emphasis on Study Abroad Programs as a vehicle for helping students move towards inclusive excellence.

·         Connection of the various “Ethnic Heritage Months” to the curriculum more directly and formally.

·         Maintain a list of “best” classroom practices with respect to inclusive excellence

·         Provide a forum for the development, dissemination and sharing of research on Inclusive Excellence

• Include Inclusive Excellence training as a part of all UCOL 101 student success seminars and create effective methods for assessing progress towards inclusive excellence in our Core Curriculum.

Some Short/Long Term Campus Programming Goals and Student Support:

·         Campus Programming shall be responsible for keeping a comprehensive “diary” of RSO, History Months, and other inclusive excellence/social activities and ensuring that information regarding them is widely and timely circulated among staff, students, and faculty. To achieve this objective, the office shall circulate a weekly “newsletter” or “bulletin” that will highlight activities of the week.

·         Timely collation of information on Inclusive Excellence events and activities on campus and redistribution of such information to the entire campus community and region.

·         Track attendance at Inclusive Excellence events to compile statistics of the attending population.

·         Encourage RSO's to co-sponsor events to address intersectional topics that will draw in intersectional audiences and cross-cultural participations.

·         Coordinate and collaborate with other units to provide social programming to nurture the development of a common language around issues of diversity, identity, power, privilege, etc. on campus.

·         Participate in the development of an annual Diversity Summit (a one-day conference on campus with campus and community presenters)

·         Work with RSO’s to evaluate and update their missions to include meaningful concepts that embrace Inclusive Excellence.

·         Train advisors and officers of RSO’s in Inclusive Excellence.

·         Work with RSO’s to provide and co-sponsor educational programs based on Inclusive Excellence.

·         Establish and coordinate comprehensive and targeted orientation programs for all

students from marginalized groups.

·         Develop and coordinate a multi-dimensional mentoring program for minority students

·         Develop and facilitate initiatives that will coordinate retention efforts for students based on cross-cultural need (i.e. a a Black Male Initiative that will coordinate retention efforts for African American male students).

·         Collaborate with the office of Fraternity and Sorority Life in advising Minority serving Greek organizations.

Anticipated Results:

A truly welcoming home away from home and inclusion atmosphere at SIUC for persons of all races, ethnicities, and genders.

Substantial increase in recruitment and enrollment (students who would not otherwise be on campus).

Substantial increase in retention.

Substantial increases in overall student successes.

In Fall 2016, there were 566 new freshmen minority students to SIUC. With an increase in cross-cultural students from the black, brown, Hispanic, Latin, and Asian communities up north of even only 15%, that would be 85 new freshmen students that would not otherwise be coming to SIUC but for the recruitment efforts of the new Center for Cross-Cultural Student Academic Success. 85 x $11,481 is $975,885.00.  That figure is arrived at before calculating similar efforts that will be made within the LGBTQ communities.

¹ U.S. News & World Report, College of Tomorrow: The Changing Demographics of the Student Body, September 22, 2014.

D.        Return to 60 credits required for transfer students to SIUC.

Students must complete 120 credit hours for a bachelor’s degree. Our entire history, until Fall 2013, transfer students to SIUC were required to complete at least 60 credit hours at a 4-year institution. In 2013, that administration reduced us to 42 required 300-400-level credit hours at a 4-year institution.

The reduction to 42 credit hours means students coming from junior colleges have been able to complete a bachelor’s degree at SIUC in only three semesters. We lose a full semester of income. 

From an educational, pedagogical, and reputational perspective, it should be essential that a student earn a bachelor’s degree.  An associate degree requires 60 hours, and a bachelor degree should require at least 60 hours from a four-year institution. Requiring less ignores the maturation of students through the process of achieving the degree through participation.

Class sizes are smaller when fewer students are on campus, and some courses that depend on students from multiple disciplines have had to be canceled. When required to complete 60 credit hours, disciplines across campus had students taking a wide variety of electives from other disciplines and other colleges on campus. That was cooperation among diverse disciplines. Electives enrollment has since significantly decreased. 

When a transfer student need only be at SIUC for three semesters, a student unhappy with her first choice of major will more likely leave the University, having had no exposure to an alternate major. The result is financial detriment from lost retention and contributes to SIUC’s current 43% retention rate.

At 60 required credit hours, if a student was unhappy with her first choice of major, she had an opportunity to try out another major and would often stay at the University, transferring into the program more to her liking. 

There were 1,603 students who transferred in to SIUC in 2016. With a single year’s fees and tuition down to $11,481, a single semester would be $5,740.50.  Calculating a fourth semester for just half of the 1,603 transfer students would be 801 students times $5,740.50, for $4,598,140.

E.         Waive $40.00 application fee.

Potential students are currently charged a $40.00 application fee. SIUC currently provides a waiver of that application fee on certain select events or weekends, but the fee otherwise remains in place. Let every potential student know that for them, there will be absolutely no fee for them to apply to SIUC; that applying for free will provide a fantastic opportunity to visit the most beautiful campus and region in Illinois. Even as it is understood that thousands of additional applications will not mean all who complete the free applications will choose SIUC, it is likely that hundreds who would not otherwise have applied with the $40.00 application fee will not only apply, but will visit and, among those, enroll. Strategically advertise the fact of our free application process, waiving the $40.00 fee for all.

F.         Bold Enhanced Advertising messages and venues

SIUC should update its advertising content and delivery methods to reach today’s potential students. Instead of advertising SIUC or a single college within SIUC, together with a laundry list of the named programs within each college, SIUC should engage in myriad ads, each specific to individual programs. Focus each ad on what is great about each of what is offered at SIU Carbondale. Many possible ads will be diversified over time and venues such that the public will always be hearing about new and wonderful facets of our campus, our students’ successes, our exceptional achievements, the vast beauty and activities offered within our region, etc.

Advertising should be redirected to movie theaters, Spotify, Pandora, SnapChat, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other such locations that are the venues most likely to touch potential students. Alternating the ads for each program and other areas of focus on campus over venues and over time will impact vast individuals, who have their own unique untapped potentials to be touched.

In 2016, Eastern Illinois University heard this call and upgraded its marketing campaign along these lines. In the first year, EIU received more than 1,700 additional applications compared to the prior year and admitted nearly 4,400 new students, up from about 3,150 the prior year.

There were 1,584 new freshmen in 2016.  A low average initial increase of students from data for properly advertised lowering of tuition and fees at a university is a 16% increase. 1,584 x 16% is 253. An increase of 253 represents a contingent of new freshmen that would not otherwise be coming to SIUC but for the mass effective advertising of reduction in tuition and fees. 253 x $11,481 is $2,904,693. That is in addition to the gains of students who are drawn to look into SIUC by learning through advertising about specific individual programs that peak their interests.

There is great value in sending an individual from each program, that has an individual willing to do so, to present to classes in junior colleges and high schools throughout Illinois and our surrounding states. These are singular opportunities for students to learn firsthand about programs that the students really know little or nothing about. Those personal appeals are significant in the students’ decision making and recruitment. At $1,200 to $1,500 a shot for out-of-region appeals, it pays for itself when the speaker gets even one student who would not otherwise be coming to SIUC.

As soon as possible, each program should create a two-to-four minute video about their programs. The video should be not only at the home page of each program’s website, but also disseminated widely throughout social media. Post on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., but also send the video to each program’s alumni. Ask each alumni and each friend on social media to also post the video. 

G.        A 2% reduction to all SIUC salaries that exceed $150,000.00.

A determination should be made of all salaries at SIUC that exceed $150,000.00.  A 2% reduction to all SIUC salaries that exceed $150,000.00 will not merely assist in the transitional costs associated with this comprehensive plan, but the fact of those in higher administration embracing the cuts as for the benefit of all will go a long way towards boosting the general morale of both the students and all those employed at SIUC.

H.        Additional factors to consider.

Illinois Innovation Network/Chicago 78/Discovery Partners Institute

SIUC must engage in any plans with a clear understanding of the impact of the Illinois Innovation Network/Chicago 78/Discovery Partners Institute. If programs and jobs are cut due to continuing losses in enrollment over the next several years, that will happen whether we do nothing or if Vision 2025 alone is pursued. 

Powerful, wealthy persons are posturing to reorganize Illinois’ 12 universities to do away with what they call “redundant” programs.¹ There is deep support from those in control of both political parties.

They have “been promoting a bold rethinking of Illinois’ redundant university system. Illinois has 12 universities run by nine separate boards. Consolidate these governing boards into a unified structure. Centralized oversight would ditch duplicate curricula.”¹

They intend to centralize academic and research departments to Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield, even as such departments would cease to exist at Carbondale.⁶ “No more shoveling state dollars into duplicative programs.”¹

Illinois Senate Bill 2234 was proposed to enable this state-wide plan. Select persons will make determinations of which universities will house which programs. For example, “if many campuses have only average engineering programs, why not combine talent and resources to create exceptional, maybe world-class programs on one, two campuses? Let the schools with so-so engineering programs instead build unique expertise in other fields.”²

One goal is allegedly to “ensure that this State is prioritizing tax dollars.”³ Their theory seems to be that reducing redundancies of offerings and opportunities for college-age students is a better benefit for Illinois due to income tax savings, then to increase our enrollment. However, that conclusion is intentionally misleading. More than 50% of Illinois residents are leaving Illinois to attend universities in other states.³

Not only do college students contribute to state and local economies through their tuition and daily living expenditures while attending college, but a majority who attend colleges in other states are less likely to return to their home state to live and work after graduation.⁴ Students who attend college in Illinois are more likely to stay in Illinois after graduation.

Thought through, the benefit to Illinois and its taxpayers is far greater when we seek methods to increase and retain students at SIUC.  For example, in 2000, Illinois lost 4,781 students to other states.⁵ That out-migration of 4,781 students equated to an estimated lifetime loss of $776,400,930 in tax revenue (income and sales tax) to the State of Illinois.⁵ In other words, the savings by improving enrollment at SIU Carbondale far outweighs alleged tax savings from reducing departments at SIUC on the pretext of reducing redundancies.

The Chicago Tribune wrote, “unifying schools, of course, would anger [those] who defend fiefdoms in Carbondale.”²  They speak of mothballing our campus, which “will rouse administrators and alumni to fiercely defend their empires, who cherish every misspent dollar that flows into local economies via the colleges.”²

In fact, those well-spent dollars cycle through our economy several times and continue to cycle on throughout the state.

President Dunn said, “if we don’t find a way forward, we have a lot of universities getting ready to walk off the cliff.”² Their response, “and maybe some should so others can thrive.”² So what others will thrive as SIUC is shoved off a cliff?

The City of Chicago was divided into 77 community areas in the late 1920s.⁷ The creation of a 78th, Chicago’s 78th, is a privately funded, $1.2 billion part of a statewide universities Illinois Innovation Network. The Discovery Partners Institute, a key piece of the sprawling 62-acre 78th, “would serve as a vital node in a planned statewide private-public research network dubbed the Illinois Innovation Network.”⁶

Doing away with departments means doing away with operating papers, chairs, and directors, substantially weakening unions and contractual checks-and-balances in place to prevent unwise terminations of programs and jobs at SIUC.  That would be unnecessary if we make an immediate bold effort to improve enrollment and retention.

We recently heard from a group who were sent to the Arizona State University to learn what is working there because Arizona is the model on which Vision 2025 is based. One conclusion of their report is that the Arizona university depends almost entirely upon research funding, perhaps its defining characteristic. The Chicago 78/Discovery Partners Institute is specifically designed to be Illinois’ premier research institution. It appears as though the lion’s share of resources, including funding from the Illinois General Assembly and private and public research funding is being and will be directed to the Chicago 78/Discovery Partners Institute, in lieu of SIUC.

The Arizona university has a huge airport, a huge rail system, trains that take students to specific buildings on campus, a huge population, and one of its bordering states is California. It is not that we cannot embrace some of the things that helped make their enrollment a success; we can. However, ignoring the stark differences, what is going on in northern Illinois, and what our greatest potential assets are and can be by pursuing as well the SIDoingSomething comprehensive plan would be illogical.  

Much strife over these several years has been a substantial lack of available funds. We recently experienced great consternation over the thought of losing $5 million to Edwardsville. By the way, what was behind that demand? Enrollment!

On the heels of that, a June 19, 2018 Press Release states that U of I’s President Killeen allocated not $5 million, but $6 Million to the Illinois Innovation Network and the Chicago 78.⁹ This at a time when cash is so tight we are limiting our faculty to one-semester contracts.

And yet that $6 million pales next to the rest of that June 19 Press Release: The Illinois General Assembly approved an appropriation of $500 million to the Illinois Innovation Network and Chicago 78.⁹  At the same time, the Illinois General Assembly appropriated $182,372,400 to the SIU system.

The thing is, mothballing what we offer at our university is not inevitable. This comprehensive plan is both feasible and capable of immediate implementation if the will to act is present.

I.          Thoughts from members of the university and regional communities.

This section will be added to as recommendations that have been coming in are compiled and transcribed.

July 24, 2018, recommendations from the region:

Instead of advertising CoLA as a college by displaying a laundry list of what departments are available in CoLA, produce many individual videos and other media that individually highlight what is terrific about each individual department, and display each to the public in a steady stream to the public.

Art History students are very happy with the education they are receiving and are doing quite well. There must be a way to advertise great experiences through testimonial.

We can all do more to advertise SIU on our own, including through social media.

Pursue and take advantage of projects like video productions produced by alumni, remaining diligent to take advantage of organic opportunities while connecting with alumni.

The alumni magazine should be more widely circulated and could become a better vehicle about positive media. It can be circulated more, to a wider audience. That can also create positive experiential work for student journalists.

There should be much more at the university run, performed, operated by students under faculty supervision.

Some of these changes are being pursued: Pandora, YouTube, Instagram, FaceChat; but we need the content to focus on each of the many things that are great and not merely the university as a unit. They are not doing moving theaters.

We are teaching anyway to half empty classrooms. We might as well have more students in the classroom. We can offer free tuition to students who meet a minimal requirement for a few years, more scholarships at least or a certain reduction.

Embrace the Alabama model. Offer free tuition to high school seniors with 3.6 GPA and higher; retain the free tuition each year that academic performance is attained. Such students’ friends will follow.

Lean into the fact that we are a diverse campus, and recruit more from the City of Chicago, and make this a destination for those groups.

Encourage greater diversity on campus. Hire people of color at the highest levels in administration. Maybe an effort can be made for a person of color, maybe even a woman of color, as President.

Lobby, engage city officials in all the towns and cities, anything within 45 minutes to an hour around. We need their help to raise their voices as city officials to help to protect the identity of SIU and that is part of Southern Illinois’ identify by speaking to their own constituents, by speaking to their own neighbors and their own friends.

July 24, 2018, concerns expressed by the region.

I am concerned with Safety. Parents’ concerns for safety of their children in Carbondale cannot be ignored. This does not sound like safe town to parents I have spoken with.

How do we go about reducing the uncertainty I hear about the university’s very existence? What can be done to get people to believe we will be around for the next ten years and more.

The percentage of international students used to be quite high, but that has gone down as well.  What efforts are being done to increase our presence of international students?

People expect us to be a quaint little town; and we’re not. We’re a thriving city with fun and some chaos, which sometimes includes crime.  It is a tough marketing issue. Do we want to promote ourselves as a quaint small town, or do we want to present ourselves as a small thriving city? 

For students who live on campus, they are required to live in the dorms, and their room and board is over $9,000 per year. It is something that is scaring students away.

On Pandora Radio, I have heard one-an-hour university advertisement over the last year, and I hear them from SEMO and SIUE; never have I heard one from SIUC.

On safety, safety can sometimes be a code word for diversity issues in this country, racism.

The uncertainty among potential students is palpable.

As to Safety, Carbondale is a lovely city with crime, but not even in the same ball field as a place like San Antonio.

Safety is also an issue for people of color, including also property and assault. It is not just shooting. International students are feeling unsafe. One got all his teeth knocked out passing a frat house. Another was attacked and injured his head, so he had to be rushed to St. Louis. These offenders are white students. Home robberies are fairly regular, or so it seems. So people of color say they do not feel safe.

Our message is about hope. There are real solutions; the hope that these real solutions will be implemented.

Inside the institution, we love to outsource the products, like technology; but then we tend to buy the cheaper versions and try to make them work for us, and it’s always a square peg in a round hole type result.

We need to focus on ways we can be more flexible and effective to the timely needs of the students. Each failure is a reflection by the affected students to others they are in communication with, the everyday ways in which we approach problem solving for individual students.

Students need a clear person or place where that problem can be solved. That is a real issue at SIU. It’s a morale issue.

A lot of our institutional memory has gone away.

It is a big frustration for the students that the students do not get how SIU works, and many of the staff do not get how SIU works.

We keep hearing that universities seeking R1 research status require much higher funding than great R2 research institutions, as one justification for our current higher tuition and fees. We could give serious thought to whether or not SIUC, which is not close to any airport hub or big city, is better off charging higher fees and tuition to become an R1 research institution or better off being a great R2 research institution. Choosing acceptance of a great R2 research institution would seem to be the better financial decision. That consideration is especially relevant now than ever given that billions of dollars are being directed right now towards the Chicago 78 mega-research facility, which means that would be another thing in Illinois our research university will be competing with.

¹ Chicago Tribune, How to reinvent Illinois higher ed (and reduce the brain drain), January 5, 2018.

² Chicago Tribune, Governor, start fixing higher ed in Illinois: How to pour more spending into classrooms and labs, April 7, 2017.

³ Illinois Senate Bill 2234.

⁴ “Outmigration and Human Capital: Homeward Bound or Gone for Good,” by Eric Lichtenberger and Cecile Dietrich, 2014.

⁵ “Estimating the Economic Impact of College Student Migration from Illinois,” by Ryan Smith and Andrew Wall.

⁶ Curbed Chicago, New U of I innovation center and ‘The 78’ mega-development officially unveiled, October 19, 2017.

⁷ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neighborhoods_in_Chicago.

⁸SIUC Factbook

⁹ Governor’s Office, Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity Press Release, June 19, 2018.

¹⁰ Chicago Tribune, Growing brain drain: University of Alabama’s gain in drawing Illinois students is a loss for Illinois, by Dawn Rhodes, April 6, 2018.

¹¹ The Chronicle of Higher Education, Why Students are Leaving Illinois in Droves – and Why It Matters, by Dan Bauman, February 2, 2018.

¹² UAB News, UAB Shatters Enrollment Record and Welcomes Largest, Highest-Achieving Freshman Class, by Jim Bakken, September 14, 2017.