WIU down 890 students.
https://www.wgem.com/2026/09/14/western-...last-year/

The enrollment is tied to the towns these universities are in. NIU cannot fix DeKalb, only DeKalb can do that.

Macomb (15k population and declining), Charleston (17k population and declining), and Carbondale (25k population and declining) are small towns. DeKalb isn't much bigger at 40k (but population is also declining). These are not thriving and growing towns.

Bloomington-Normal with 132k, Chicago (UIC) with millions, and Urbana-Champaign with 240k just have more for young people and employment opportunities.

(09-11-2026 09:48 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-11-2026 09:07 AM)AnnieGliddenDawg Wrote:  Every single time this gets brought up you absolute morons keep forgetting that the town of Dekalb blows. Theres what like 2 bars for people to go to? You think some 18 year old who's weighing between ISU and NIU is not going look at the party/bar scene? Its the social media age they pick the party scene 9/10. ISU is #83 out of 1,495 party schools in the nation. NIU is #572. Use your brains people.

A dying farm town in the middle of nowhere is a tough sell to get people to go to. I guess the university could start embracing a party school atmosphere and advertise that but you can only do so much with what you have.

News flash for you...

The bar scene is lacking, and no new student apartments are being built, BECAUSE ENROLLMENT IS DOWN.

It all tracks back to Freeman, her policies, strategies and staff.

I went to NIU in the early 90's. Great bar scene, lots of house parties, tailgating was fun, new apartment buildings popped up, BECAUSE CAMPUS WAS FULL, WE WERE AT 20k+ STUDENTS.

More students = better night life and new residential choices in Dekalb. Also, Dekalb seems to doing OK, new data centers, corporate facility proposals... NIU just needs to follow suit and get back to robust enrollment. We have a great main street/classic college town, feels like you're away but can get to the city and burbs quickly. We're in the #3 DMA with solid academic programs, no way 20k+ isn't there for the taking again with good leadership and direction.

Not even close dude. I was there in 2013 when we had a top 20 football team and 20k students. The town was old and crappy then too and rapidly declining. I watched bars and business' close. The town has done absolutely nothing in the last 13 years to change their image. No one wants to go to NIU because the reputation of Dekalb has done nothing but go in the toilet.

I know people who live in Dekalb who talk about how bad it is by campus. The university can try all they want but if they dont own the property over there they cant do squat about it. Dekalb was happy to open their doors to a bunch of low income housing and now they are majorly paying the price for it.

Dekalb shot themselves in the foot by not getting in on the Metra expansion. The City and many residents have always been against it because they fear that it will bring in all the riffraff from the city (as if they can’t drive cars and would take a 2 hour train ride to Dekalb). Connecting NIU to the city through a train line would be a game-changer, and the city’s repeated failure to do that is a total own-goal. Look at how much Elburn has grown since getting a station. Hell, Rockford(!) of all places is now becoming a hot place because they are getting train service.

I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out with college enrollments, I read a bunch of articles saying the demographic trend is there are just fewer college age kids everywhere, starting about 2025. Yeah these numbers are down, but not a crazy amount.

I had caught something saying a bigger % of college age kids are electing to go to college now, that is helping enrollment stay closer to stable.

(09-15-2026 10:18 AM)niu16 Wrote:  WIU down 890 students.
https://www.wgem.com/2026/09/14/western-...last-year/

It’s Lisa Freeman’s fault!

More than one factor at play as I've comed to learn.

Less kids
Less kids going to college
Emigration from Illinois
Kids selecting desirable warm weather schools
No capital improvements at NIU d/t limited state funding and limited school resources
DeKalb compared to other available options kind of sucks. They did dress up that downtown, which is cool
Limited recruitment activity compared NIUs heyday
Local crime
Limited outside investment, student housing hasn't changed much since I was there and most of that was updated in the 90s
Limited nightlife, there's like what? 3 bars
Limited Greek Life, thanks Pikes
Limited things to do in general, thanks cornfield
Our sports aren't that great, most times the turnout is next to nothing so what's there to cheer for most times?

(09-15-2026 05:24 PM)Rawdog10 Wrote:  Dekalb shot themselves in the foot by not getting in on the Metra expansion. The City and many residents have always been against it because they fear that it will bring in all the riffraff from the city (as if they can’t drive cars and would take a 2 hour train ride to Dekalb). Connecting NIU to the city through a train line would be a game-changer, and the city’s repeated failure to do that is a total own-goal. Look at how much Elburn has grown since getting a station. Hell, Rockford(!) of all places is now becoming a hot place because they are getting train service.

DeKalb isn't getting Metra. It would take the construction of a third rail all the way to DeKalb. That would be over a hundred million dollars.

Metra ridership is down. It has nothing to do with the growth in Elburn. In fact, if you go to the Elburn station, not all of the original parking is used any longer. There is space to double the parking in LaFox and that is no longer being considered due to lack of ridership.

It takes nearly 1.5 hours to get from downtown to Elburn. Add in another 25 minutes to get to DeKalb. And, then, where do you locate the station? East of town makes the most railroad sense, but that doesn't help campus. You can't put it west of town because you can't get a third set of tracks through.

Lack of Metra is not the cause of DeKalb's problem.

(09-15-2026 04:25 PM)AnnieGliddenDawg Wrote:  I know people who live in Dekalb who talk about how bad it is by campus. The university can try all they want but if they dont own the property over there they cant do squat about it. Dekalb was happy to open their doors to a bunch of low income housing and now they are majorly paying the price for it.

The crappiest apartments on North Annie Glidden used to be student housing. When the student enrollment dropped, there was less demand for those apartments. That is when the entire area starting going to hell.

(09-15-2026 08:01 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  More than one factor at play as I've comed to learn.

Less kids
Less kids going to college
Emigration from Illinois
Kids selecting desirable warm weather schools
No capital improvements at NIU d/t limited state funding and limited school resources
DeKalb compared to other available options kind of sucks. They did dress up that downtown, which is cool
Limited recruitment activity compared NIUs heyday
Local crime
Limited outside investment, student housing hasn't changed much since I was there and most of that was updated in the 90s
Limited nightlife, there's like what? 3 bars
Limited Greek Life, thanks Pikes
Limited things to do in general, thanks cornfield
Our sports aren't that great, most times the turnout is next to nothing so what's there to cheer for most times?

These statements are accurate.

We have apartments to house 25k students. When 15k is enrollment, those empty units get filled with non college kids. Who rents apartments intended for college kids that aren’t college kids? Low-income individuals.

More low income people living near college = parents not wanting to send kids to NIU. It’s a vicious cycle.

By the way…we may have enrollment of 15-16k, but we have to have a high online/virtual enrollment. Campus is dead. It is pathetic. Yes, it is heavily Freeman’s and administrators fault. It is also the states and the city of DeKalbs fault. NIU is not looking great these days. I wouldn’t go there today if I visited campus

(09-15-2026 09:02 PM)JB04 Wrote:  These statements are accurate.

We have apartments to house 25k students. When 15k is enrollment, those empty units get filled with non college kids. Who rents apartments intended for college kids that aren’t college kids? Low-income individuals.

More low income people living near college = parents not wanting to send kids to NIU. It’s a vicious cycle.

By the way…we may have enrollment of 15-16k, but we have to have a high online/virtual enrollment. Campus is dead. It is pathetic. Yes, it is heavily Freeman’s and administrators fault. It is also the states and the city of DeKalbs fault. NIU is not looking great these days. I wouldn’t go there today if I visited campus

We should also examine the quality of NIU's academics. We know the accounting program was allowed to tank. It used to be one of the top programs in the country. Now, it isn't even one of the top in the state. Why? What is the status of NIU's other major programs?

(09-15-2026 08:40 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-15-2026 04:25 PM)AnnieGliddenDawg Wrote:  I know people who live in Dekalb who talk about how bad it is by campus. The university can try all they want but if they dont own the property over there they cant do squat about it. Dekalb was happy to open their doors to a bunch of low income housing and now they are majorly paying the price for it.

The crappiest apartments on North Annie Glidden used to be student housing. When the student enrollment dropped, there was less demand for those apartments. That is when the entire area starting going to hell.

Isn't that super duper fast Eddie's fault?

Looks like WIU cold close soon? Sad, but that would help the other in-state U's. More than anything Illinois needs to make it's colleges as cheap as all of the surrounding states again, that means new leadership ASAP in Springfield.

(09-16-2026 08:41 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  Looks like WIU cold close soon? Sad, but that would help the other in-state U's. More than anything Illinois needs to make it's colleges as cheap as all of the surrounding states again, that means new leadership ASAP in Springfield.

Their closing would be so marginal. 5k students getting dispersed to all other state schools is almost nothing. My high school had almost as many students as that place.

The problem is Illinois has too many public universities. Serious consideration should be given to closing some. This will never happen as black eye to politicians. Look at CPS. Some schools are less than 25% capacity. I was reading the cost for one high school was $55k per student.

(09-16-2026 01:53 PM)Klake1987 Wrote:  The problem is Illinois has too many public universities. Serious consideration should be given to closing some. This will never happen as black eye to politicians. Look at CPS. Some schools are less than 25% capacity. I was reading the cost for one high school was $55k per student.

You're correct, logic will not play a large part in that discussion unfortunatley.

For more reasons now than ever, I would love to see NIU rebrand as something other than a "directional", seems to be at an all time high as a negative a term in higher education.

My wife is an educator in the western suburbs. The most common reason she hears for students not choosing NIU is that it is not safe. I understand that this may be far from the truth, but that is the perception of potential students and their parents.

(09-16-2026 01:53 PM)Klake1987 Wrote:  The problem is Illinois has too many public universities. Serious consideration should be given to closing some. This will never happen as black eye to politicians. Look at CPS. Some schools are less than 25% capacity. I was reading the cost for one high school was $55k per student.

It’s true.
Enrollment down. Expenses up.
Been a year or so, CTU should be about ready to strike soon.

(09-16-2026 02:37 PM)Prince Crossing Wrote:  My wife is an educator in the western suburbs. The most common reason she hears for students not choosing NIU is that it is not safe. I understand that this may be far from the truth, but that is the perception of potential students and their parents.

Yea I think I've heard that too. The perception is everything.

(09-16-2026 01:53 PM)Klake1987 Wrote:  The problem is Illinois has too many public universities. Serious consideration should be given to closing some. This will never happen as black eye to politicians. Look at CPS. Some schools are less than 25% capacity. I was reading the cost for one high school was $55k per student.

I spy with my little eye, a vastly underperforming and undersized university on Chicago's Southside getting a football team that should be cut loose