SIUC enrollment drops again
Southern Illinois University Carbondale officials are blaming a 1.5 percent enrollment drop this fall on the struggling economy.
School officials say students appear to be choosing to go to school closer to home or are dropping out of school altogether.
The school has 310 fewer students this year for a total student population of 20,673. SIUC has been battling enrollment woes for several years. They have cited several factors for the decline in the past, including the school’s remote location, the slowing population growth in the surrounding communities, and competition with other schools.
One bright spot, however, is that the number of freshmen has increased for the second year in a row. The school has 119 more freshmen this year.
The problem spot is the junior class, which saw a drop of 210 continuing students as well as 132 fewer transfer students.
“When it comes to enrollment, we are facing economic and competitive challenges that we haven’t seen in a generation,” interim Chancellor Samuel Goldman said in a statement. “That’s why we have several initiatives under way now as part of our planning for next year. We are focused on retention issues and I am confident that a number of new programs, including the First-Year Experience, which begins next year, will make a positive difference.”
Kavita Kumar covers higher education for the Post-Dispatch. 
Living accomodations for students need to be vastly improved before SIUC can ever grow.
People are not going there because of the outrageous fees charged at SIUC, but the administration will not admit that to themselves. Out of state tuition and fees charged at nearby Southeast Missouri State University is much less expensive for Illinois students.
I graduated from SIUC in 2002 and it was going downhill back then. They need to update the campus. They continually spend money on consultants to improve their image instead of spending that money on campus improvements. They have a ton of excuses for the drops in enrollment but it just takes a walk around the campus to identify the issue.
http://newshound.de.siu.edu/online/stories/storyReader3722
SIUC Administration needs to wake up. Failure to improve the campus will result in a continued loss of students. SEMO is a lot nicer college, and less expensive too.
Time to move the football team to Edwardsville. Nobody wants to go down there anymore.
SIUE’s enrollment has the largest freshmen class this year…what are they doing that SIUC isn’t?
The undergrad numbers must include part time students. It would be nice to see a comparison to SIUE,EIU,ISU and WIU. THe facilities and administration in Carbondale are both mostly aged.