(09-16-2026 03:20 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(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.

Perception? An 18 year old was murdered by a gun shot in the face in the building next door to where I lived my sophomore year.

Everyone listen/read this clearly: Annie glidden, Hillcrest, and anywhere near Greek Row is disgusting, depressing, and dirty. Gone are the days of college kids walking around. One drive through that area and no parent will want their kid going to NIU

(09-16-2026 05:54 PM)JB04 Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 03:20 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(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.

Perception? An 18 year old was murdered by a gun shot in the face in the building next door to where I lived my sophomore year.

Everyone listen/read this clearly: Annie glidden, Hillcrest, and anywhere near Greek Row is disgusting, depressing, and dirty. Gone are the days of college kids walking around. One drive through that area and no parent will want their kid going to NIU

I mean Chicago....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of..._Shaoxiong

But also, yes, NIU is a dump and the party scene looks nothing like it once was. I drove around there the night after homecoming....it was quiet and boring

I've since visited Il St and several other out of state college, and if I were committing in this day and age, I would certainly not choose NIU. You are right, Greek Row is awful looking but so is damn near everything else. Isn't Starbusters a crummy looking convince store now? I think the fine people of Lundeen's left it to some other crummy liquor store. And I saw that video of Thirsty's Liquor getting looted...

Thank you Fast Eddie

(09-16-2026 08:22 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 05:54 PM)JB04 Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 03:20 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(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.

Perception? An 18 year old was murdered by a gun shot in the face in the building next door to where I lived my sophomore year.

Everyone listen/read this clearly: Annie glidden, Hillcrest, and anywhere near Greek Row is disgusting, depressing, and dirty. Gone are the days of college kids walking around. One drive through that area and no parent will want their kid going to NIU

I mean Chicago....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of..._Shaoxiong

But also, yes, NIU is a dump and the party scene looks nothing like it once was. I drove around there the night after homecoming....it was quiet and boring

I've since visited Il St and several other out of state college, and if I were committing in this day and age, I would certainly not choose NIU. You are right, Greek Row is awful looking but so is damn near everything else. Isn't Starbusters a crummy looking convince store now? I think the fine people of Lundeen's left it to some other crummy liquor store. And I saw that video of Thirsty's Liquor getting looted...

Thank you Fast Eddie

I guess I should have added. One drive through those areas and no one would send their kid to NIU….unless it is not different than what you are used to

(09-16-2026 05:54 PM)JB04 Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 03:20 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(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.

Perception? An 18 year old was murdered by a gun shot in the face in the building next door to where I lived my sophomore year.

Everyone listen/read this clearly: Annie glidden, Hillcrest, and anywhere near Greek Row is disgusting, depressing, and dirty. Gone are the days of college kids walking around. One drive through that area and no parent will want their kid going to NIU

I have 3 kids who fairly recently graduated from NIU and have a great experience. Sure there are issues like any other university/town, but they lived in Greek Row and had a blast. The area was plenty vibrant with college kids doing their thing. The narrative of NIU being a shithole are not accurate. I do agree that the perception of NIU is not good at all, which is unfortunate.

(09-15-2026 10:51 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  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.

100%. I’ve always said this.

If NIU was in Bloomington-Normal (or Naperville) and ISU was in DeKalb, it would be NIU doing well in enrollment and ISU struggling.

No president isn’t going to change this. There’s not really anything NIU can do to meaningfully reverse it. It just is what it’s going to be.

(09-17-2026 02:10 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-15-2026 10:51 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  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.

100%. I’ve always said this.

If NIU was in Bloomington-Normal (or Naperville) and ISU was in DeKalb, it would be NIU doing well in enrollment and ISU struggling.

No president isn’t going to change this. There’s not really anything NIU can do to meaningfully reverse it. It just is what it’s going to be.

You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

(09-17-2026 09:00 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:10 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-15-2026 10:51 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  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.

100%. I’ve always said this.

If NIU was in Bloomington-Normal (or Naperville) and ISU was in DeKalb, it would be NIU doing well in enrollment and ISU struggling.

No president isn’t going to change this. There’s not really anything NIU can do to meaningfully reverse it. It just is what it’s going to be.

You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

That’s a way different time and age. Enrollment at IL directionals and similar midwest schools was quite a bit higher then. Schools in the likes of DeKalb, Carbondale, etc were thriving in those days.

Since then, you’ve seen:

- Enrollment cliff, especially in IL/the midwest heavily impacting IL directionals and similar midwest schools

- Explosion of online schools, which takes a significant chunk of students who would’ve been traditional students at IL/midwest directionals back in the day

- IL 18-year-olds increasingly going out-of-state at markedly higher rates than back then. Ditto IL/midwestern 18-year-olds increasingly going South or West compared to then.

- Social media influence on choosing schools. Kids are on their phones all the time and are heavily influenced by which campuses/college towns appear vibrant or go viral on Instagram/TikTok. Unfortunately, DeKalb doesn’t win this battle.

- Shift in the preferences of this generation’s students. A lot of 18-year-olds in previous generations wanted to attend smaller college towns. Today’s generation has tilted significantly more towards the cosmopolitan area end of the scale while the number of 18-year-olds who want to attend smaller college towns has dwindled.


All of these factors create a vicious cycle. The vibrant campuses you’d see at NIU or SIU back in the day were heavily reliant on the large enrollments. Once enrollments dissipated, Carbondale fell from a party magnet famous for its Halloween scene to a struggling town. DeKalb today isn’t really attractive to 18-year-olds without the vibes a 25k enrollment created a generation ago.

What attracted people to NIU in its heyday was the atmosphere created by that 25k enrollment. That was able to mask DeKalb not being the attraction. Once external factors inevitably hit NIU, that scene from
the 25k student days was no longer drawing people in, and NIU couldn’t fall back on DeKalb the way an ISU can fall back on a Bloomington-Normal to draw people in.

(09-17-2026 11:30 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 09:00 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:10 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-15-2026 10:51 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  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.

100%. I’ve always said this.

If NIU was in Bloomington-Normal (or Naperville) and ISU was in DeKalb, it would be NIU doing well in enrollment and ISU struggling.

No president isn’t going to change this. There’s not really anything NIU can do to meaningfully reverse it. It just is what it’s going to be.

You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

That’s a way different time and age. Enrollment at IL directionals and similar midwest schools was quite a bit higher then. Schools in the likes of DeKalb, Carbondale, etc were thriving in those days.

Since then, you’ve seen:

- Enrollment cliff, especially in IL/the midwest heavily impacting IL directionals and similar midwest schools

- Explosion of online schools, which takes a significant chunk of students who would’ve been traditional students at IL/midwest directionals back in the day

- IL 18-year-olds increasingly going out-of-state at markedly higher rates than back then. Ditto IL/midwestern 18-year-olds increasingly going South or West compared to then.

- Social media influence on choosing schools. Kids are on their phones all the time and are heavily influenced by which campuses/college towns appear vibrant or go viral on Instagram/TikTok. Unfortunately, DeKalb doesn’t win this battle.

- Shift in the preferences of this generation’s students. A lot of 18-year-olds in previous generations wanted to attend smaller college towns. Today’s generation has tilted significantly more towards the cosmopolitan area end of the scale while the number of 18-year-olds who want to attend smaller college towns has dwindled.


All of these factors create a vicious cycle. The vibrant campuses you’d see at NIU or SIU back in the day were heavily reliant on the large enrollments. Once enrollments dissipated, Carbondale fell from a party magnet famous for its Halloween scene to a struggling town. DeKalb today isn’t really attractive to 18-year-olds without the vibes a 25k enrollment created a generation ago.

What attracted people to NIU in its heyday was the atmosphere created by that 25k enrollment. That was able to mask DeKalb not being the attraction. Once external factors inevitably hit NIU, that scene from
the 25k student days was no longer drawing people in, and NIU couldn’t fall back on DeKalb the way an ISU can fall back on a Bloomington-Normal to draw people in.

Still 100% disagree, I've been to Bloomington Normal, nothing there to make a major impact In recruiting. Smaller state schools are not flourishing, there is a current trend there. NIU, on the outskirts of the #3 DMA should be way more than fine if we can install better leadership, hopefully soon.

(09-16-2026 04:43 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  

(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

How about starting with Governors State? Should be starting with that school and Chicago State.

(09-17-2026 02:02 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 04:43 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  

(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

How about starting with Governors State? Should be starting with that school and Chicago State.

I get that no community or alumni base wants to lose its school, unfortunately theres going to be a run of closures coming up.

Chicago State should have shuttered its doors several years ago, so odd they would double down and spend money on a football program instead. Please tell me that was 100% private money.

(09-17-2026 02:23 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:02 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 04:43 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  

(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

How about starting with Governors State? Should be starting with that school and Chicago State.

I get that no community or alumni base wants to lose its school, unfortunately theres going to be a run of closures coming up.

Chicago State should have shuttered its doors several years ago, so odd they would double down and spend money on a football program instead. Please tell me that was 100% private money.

These are public schools. When does government ever do the fiscally responsible thing?

(09-17-2026 02:42 PM)Klake1987 Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:23 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:02 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 04:43 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  

(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

How about starting with Governors State? Should be starting with that school and Chicago State.

I get that no community or alumni base wants to lose its school, unfortunately theres going to be a run of closures coming up.

Chicago State should have shuttered its doors several years ago, so odd they would double down and spend money on a football program instead. Please tell me that was 100% private money.

These are public schools. When does government ever do the fiscally responsible thing?

Don't blame me man, I voted for Kodos

So crime is down across NIU campus. The major "crime" is e-bike/scooter theft. It is basically the city of DeKalb giving NIU any bad wrap.

Quote:1 The increase seen in 2025 is due to an increase in the theft of electric bicycles and electric scooters.

Source: 2026 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report
https://www.niu.edu/clery/2026-annual-se...eport.docx

(09-17-2026 01:21 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 11:30 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 09:00 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:10 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-15-2026 10:51 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  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.

100%. I’ve always said this.

If NIU was in Bloomington-Normal (or Naperville) and ISU was in DeKalb, it would be NIU doing well in enrollment and ISU struggling.

No president isn’t going to change this. There’s not really anything NIU can do to meaningfully reverse it. It just is what it’s going to be.

You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

That’s a way different time and age. Enrollment at IL directionals and similar midwest schools was quite a bit higher then. Schools in the likes of DeKalb, Carbondale, etc were thriving in those days.

Since then, you’ve seen:

- Enrollment cliff, especially in IL/the midwest heavily impacting IL directionals and similar midwest schools

- Explosion of online schools, which takes a significant chunk of students who would’ve been traditional students at IL/midwest directionals back in the day

- IL 18-year-olds increasingly going out-of-state at markedly higher rates than back then. Ditto IL/midwestern 18-year-olds increasingly going South or West compared to then.

- Social media influence on choosing schools. Kids are on their phones all the time and are heavily influenced by which campuses/college towns appear vibrant or go viral on Instagram/TikTok. Unfortunately, DeKalb doesn’t win this battle.

- Shift in the preferences of this generation’s students. A lot of 18-year-olds in previous generations wanted to attend smaller college towns. Today’s generation has tilted significantly more towards the cosmopolitan area end of the scale while the number of 18-year-olds who want to attend smaller college towns has dwindled.


All of these factors create a vicious cycle. The vibrant campuses you’d see at NIU or SIU back in the day were heavily reliant on the large enrollments. Once enrollments dissipated, Carbondale fell from a party magnet famous for its Halloween scene to a struggling town. DeKalb today isn’t really attractive to 18-year-olds without the vibes a 25k enrollment created a generation ago.

What attracted people to NIU in its heyday was the atmosphere created by that 25k enrollment. That was able to mask DeKalb not being the attraction. Once external factors inevitably hit NIU, that scene from
the 25k student days was no longer drawing people in, and NIU couldn’t fall back on DeKalb the way an ISU can fall back on a Bloomington-Normal to draw people in.

Still 100% disagree, I've been to Bloomington Normal, nothing there to make a major impact In recruiting. Smaller state schools are not flourishing, there is a current trend there. NIU, on the outskirts of the #3 DMA should be way more than fine if we can install better leadership, hopefully soon.

You can disagree all you want, but it doesn't change facts. It's a complex issue for sure, but many lesser institutions are struggling while flagship institutions are thriving. The economic divide has never been greater. The "haves" want the flagship and "name" institutions. The "have nots" go to community college or trade school. The middle is getting smaller. That's where NIU and many public colleges in Illinois fall. Illinois' fiscal irresponsibility in the past doesn't help any either. It's getting much better, but the horse left the barn long ago.

No one can predict 20-30 years or more in the future, but as it stands now, there is no way that NIU can sustain or increase the current enrollment in the foreseeable future. If you think new leadership can change that, you're sadly mistaken. Superior leadership may slow the bleeding but it can't eliminate it.

(10-06-2026 07:52 PM)mattresspolice Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 01:21 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 11:30 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 09:00 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 02:10 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  100%. I’ve always said this.

If NIU was in Bloomington-Normal (or Naperville) and ISU was in DeKalb, it would be NIU doing well in enrollment and ISU struggling.

No president isn’t going to change this. There’s not really anything NIU can do to meaningfully reverse it. It just is what it’s going to be.

You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

That’s a way different time and age. Enrollment at IL directionals and similar midwest schools was quite a bit higher then. Schools in the likes of DeKalb, Carbondale, etc were thriving in those days.

Since then, you’ve seen:

- Enrollment cliff, especially in IL/the midwest heavily impacting IL directionals and similar midwest schools

- Explosion of online schools, which takes a significant chunk of students who would’ve been traditional students at IL/midwest directionals back in the day

- IL 18-year-olds increasingly going out-of-state at markedly higher rates than back then. Ditto IL/midwestern 18-year-olds increasingly going South or West compared to then.

- Social media influence on choosing schools. Kids are on their phones all the time and are heavily influenced by which campuses/college towns appear vibrant or go viral on Instagram/TikTok. Unfortunately, DeKalb doesn’t win this battle.

- Shift in the preferences of this generation’s students. A lot of 18-year-olds in previous generations wanted to attend smaller college towns. Today’s generation has tilted significantly more towards the cosmopolitan area end of the scale while the number of 18-year-olds who want to attend smaller college towns has dwindled.


All of these factors create a vicious cycle. The vibrant campuses you’d see at NIU or SIU back in the day were heavily reliant on the large enrollments. Once enrollments dissipated, Carbondale fell from a party magnet famous for its Halloween scene to a struggling town. DeKalb today isn’t really attractive to 18-year-olds without the vibes a 25k enrollment created a generation ago.

What attracted people to NIU in its heyday was the atmosphere created by that 25k enrollment. That was able to mask DeKalb not being the attraction. Once external factors inevitably hit NIU, that scene from
the 25k student days was no longer drawing people in, and NIU couldn’t fall back on DeKalb the way an ISU can fall back on a Bloomington-Normal to draw people in.

Still 100% disagree, I've been to Bloomington Normal, nothing there to make a major impact In recruiting. Smaller state schools are not flourishing, there is a current trend there. NIU, on the outskirts of the #3 DMA should be way more than fine if we can install better leadership, hopefully soon.

You can disagree all you want, but it doesn't change facts. It's a complex issue for sure, but many lesser institutions are struggling while flagship institutions are thriving. The economic divide has never been greater. The "haves" want the flagship and "name" institutions. The "have nots" go to community college or trade school. The middle is getting smaller. That's where NIU and many public colleges in Illinois fall. Illinois' fiscal irresponsibility in the past doesn't help any either. It's getting much better, but the horse left the barn long ago.

No one can predict 20-30 years or more in the future, but as it stands now, there is no way that NIU can sustain or increase the current enrollment in the foreseeable future. If you think new leadership can change that, you're sadly mistaken. Superior leadership may slow the bleeding but it can't eliminate it.

Still think you're WAY off on this, but agree to disagree.

Nobody wants their alma mater to close, but some colleges will be closing over the next few decades, even in Illinois where skeletons like CSU get football funds instead of the pink slip it deserves.

NIU won't be discussed in the first wave, or second wave for that matter of Illinois colleges targeted for closing in the next 5-10-20 years, and we can be much closer to a have than have-not in the near future with quality leadership.

It would be very sensible for NIU to rebrand at this juncture, but that's a disputed discussion for another thread

(10-07-2026 07:40 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(10-06-2026 07:52 PM)mattresspolice Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 01:21 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 11:30 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 09:00 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

That’s a way different time and age. Enrollment at IL directionals and similar midwest schools was quite a bit higher then. Schools in the likes of DeKalb, Carbondale, etc were thriving in those days.

Since then, you’ve seen:

- Enrollment cliff, especially in IL/the midwest heavily impacting IL directionals and similar midwest schools

- Explosion of online schools, which takes a significant chunk of students who would’ve been traditional students at IL/midwest directionals back in the day

- IL 18-year-olds increasingly going out-of-state at markedly higher rates than back then. Ditto IL/midwestern 18-year-olds increasingly going South or West compared to then.

- Social media influence on choosing schools. Kids are on their phones all the time and are heavily influenced by which campuses/college towns appear vibrant or go viral on Instagram/TikTok. Unfortunately, DeKalb doesn’t win this battle.

- Shift in the preferences of this generation’s students. A lot of 18-year-olds in previous generations wanted to attend smaller college towns. Today’s generation has tilted significantly more towards the cosmopolitan area end of the scale while the number of 18-year-olds who want to attend smaller college towns has dwindled.


All of these factors create a vicious cycle. The vibrant campuses you’d see at NIU or SIU back in the day were heavily reliant on the large enrollments. Once enrollments dissipated, Carbondale fell from a party magnet famous for its Halloween scene to a struggling town. DeKalb today isn’t really attractive to 18-year-olds without the vibes a 25k enrollment created a generation ago.

What attracted people to NIU in its heyday was the atmosphere created by that 25k enrollment. That was able to mask DeKalb not being the attraction. Once external factors inevitably hit NIU, that scene from
the 25k student days was no longer drawing people in, and NIU couldn’t fall back on DeKalb the way an ISU can fall back on a Bloomington-Normal to draw people in.

Still 100% disagree, I've been to Bloomington Normal, nothing there to make a major impact In recruiting. Smaller state schools are not flourishing, there is a current trend there. NIU, on the outskirts of the #3 DMA should be way more than fine if we can install better leadership, hopefully soon.

You can disagree all you want, but it doesn't change facts. It's a complex issue for sure, but many lesser institutions are struggling while flagship institutions are thriving. The economic divide has never been greater. The "haves" want the flagship and "name" institutions. The "have nots" go to community college or trade school. The middle is getting smaller. That's where NIU and many public colleges in Illinois fall. Illinois' fiscal irresponsibility in the past doesn't help any either. It's getting much better, but the horse left the barn long ago.

No one can predict 20-30 years or more in the future, but as it stands now, there is no way that NIU can sustain or increase the current enrollment in the foreseeable future. If you think new leadership can change that, you're sadly mistaken. Superior leadership may slow the bleeding but it can't eliminate it.

Still think you're WAY off on this, but agree to disagree.

Nobody wants their alma mater to close, but some colleges will be closing over the next few decades, even in Illinois where skeletons like CSU get football funds instead of the pink slip it deserves.

NIU won't be discussed in the first wave, or second wave for that matter of Illinois colleges targeted for closing in the next 5-10-20 years, and we can be much closer to a have than have-not in the near future with quality leadership.

It would be very sensible for NIU to rebrand at this juncture, but that's a disputed discussion for another thread

As long as universities exist as institutions (not a given), NIU will survive. It’s too big to fail. I can see some consolidations in the future though.

This will be a slow motion implosion, so slow some on this board like me likely won't be around to see some directional school closed down, think many decades of slow decline. I mean those cities rely on the jobs, and no politician will vote to gut his area, and those are a lot of union jobs I think, so they will hang on forever. The population trend of the city or number of students means less than we think, that's my thinking.

I just read each directional school has it's own operations (HR, payroll, legal, etc), so watch for the state to pressure some consolidation in the white collar non union workforces.

The state is still somehow funding the struggling schools, even at lower than needed levels. Look for the credit ratings of schools to move to junk status for a warning flag. But these things just seem to take FOREVER to resolve, our political system isn't always speedy (sarcasm).

(10-07-2026 09:56 PM)NIU84 Wrote:  This will be a slow motion implosion, so slow some on this board like me likely won't be around to see some directional school closed down, think many decades of slow decline. I mean those cities rely on the jobs, and no politician will vote to gut his area, and those are a lot of union jobs I think, so they will hang on forever. The population trend of the city or number of students means less than we think, that's my thinking.

I just read each directional school has it's own operations (HR, payroll, legal, etc), so watch for the state to pressure some consolidation in the white collar non union workforces.

The state is still somehow funding the struggling schools, even at lower than needed levels. Look for the credit ratings of schools to move to junk status for a warning flag. But these things just seem to take FOREVER to resolve, our political system isn't always speedy (sarcasm).

I second this. Enrollment could dip to WIU levels (it won’t), and NIU would still be open.

(10-07-2026 07:40 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(10-06-2026 07:52 PM)mattresspolice Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 01:21 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 11:30 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 09:00 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  You two are 100% wrong, agree to disagree, but you're way off. Dekalb has great bones, a classic Main Street-USA type college town but still near the city and it's offerings. NIU was at 25k when I attended, and the administration literally penned an article on why they were slowing their growth to 30k down a bit, all in this exact zip code you demoralize. Better marketing/messaging, better leadership, 18k students leads to 19k students, more bars, better apartments, less randoms living in housing intended for Huskies.

I do think you'll see the larger schools survive, and thive, and some smaller schools close in all states, especially poorly-run Illinois. NIU should easily be on the right side of that equation, especially if we can get better people at the helm.

That’s a way different time and age. Enrollment at IL directionals and similar midwest schools was quite a bit higher then. Schools in the likes of DeKalb, Carbondale, etc were thriving in those days.

Since then, you’ve seen:

- Enrollment cliff, especially in IL/the midwest heavily impacting IL directionals and similar midwest schools

- Explosion of online schools, which takes a significant chunk of students who would’ve been traditional students at IL/midwest directionals back in the day

- IL 18-year-olds increasingly going out-of-state at markedly higher rates than back then. Ditto IL/midwestern 18-year-olds increasingly going South or West compared to then.

- Social media influence on choosing schools. Kids are on their phones all the time and are heavily influenced by which campuses/college towns appear vibrant or go viral on Instagram/TikTok. Unfortunately, DeKalb doesn’t win this battle.

- Shift in the preferences of this generation’s students. A lot of 18-year-olds in previous generations wanted to attend smaller college towns. Today’s generation has tilted significantly more towards the cosmopolitan area end of the scale while the number of 18-year-olds who want to attend smaller college towns has dwindled.


All of these factors create a vicious cycle. The vibrant campuses you’d see at NIU or SIU back in the day were heavily reliant on the large enrollments. Once enrollments dissipated, Carbondale fell from a party magnet famous for its Halloween scene to a struggling town. DeKalb today isn’t really attractive to 18-year-olds without the vibes a 25k enrollment created a generation ago.

What attracted people to NIU in its heyday was the atmosphere created by that 25k enrollment. That was able to mask DeKalb not being the attraction. Once external factors inevitably hit NIU, that scene from
the 25k student days was no longer drawing people in, and NIU couldn’t fall back on DeKalb the way an ISU can fall back on a Bloomington-Normal to draw people in.

Still 100% disagree, I've been to Bloomington Normal, nothing there to make a major impact In recruiting. Smaller state schools are not flourishing, there is a current trend there. NIU, on the outskirts of the #3 DMA should be way more than fine if we can install better leadership, hopefully soon.

You can disagree all you want, but it doesn't change facts. It's a complex issue for sure, but many lesser institutions are struggling while flagship institutions are thriving. The economic divide has never been greater. The "haves" want the flagship and "name" institutions. The "have nots" go to community college or trade school. The middle is getting smaller. That's where NIU and many public colleges in Illinois fall. Illinois' fiscal irresponsibility in the past doesn't help any either. It's getting much better, but the horse left the barn long ago.

No one can predict 20-30 years or more in the future, but as it stands now, there is no way that NIU can sustain or increase the current enrollment in the foreseeable future. If you think new leadership can change that, you're sadly mistaken. Superior leadership may slow the bleeding but it can't eliminate it.

Still think you're WAY off on this, but agree to disagree.

Nobody wants their alma mater to close, but some colleges will be closing over the next few decades, even in Illinois where skeletons like CSU get football funds instead of the pink slip it deserves.

NIU won't be discussed in the first wave, or second wave for that matter of Illinois colleges targeted for closing in the next 5-10-20 years, and we can be much closer to a have than have-not in the near future with quality leadership.

It would be very sensible for NIU to rebrand at this juncture, but that's a disputed discussion for another thread

What do you think is way off?

Random comment. Sol Jensen VP of student enrollment has his contract ending on 6/30/27 along with Frazier. haha

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