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+----- Thread: Enrollment down to 14,364 (/thread-964679.html)
Enrollment down to 14,364 - HuskieDave - 02-06-2023 10:20 AM
We are now down nearly 50% from our all-time enrollment. This is alarming…..and has been for some time.
https://northernstar.info/102975/news/enrollment-less-students-increased-first-year-retention/
And it shouldn’t be “less” students, but, FEWER students. Be better Northern Star.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - pvk75 - 02-06-2023 10:45 AM
Please correct if wrong:
The "standard" or "normal" school year is the fall and spring semesters combined. That is the typical "school year."
"Re-enrollment" is bureaucrat-speak to mean that students who enrolled for the fall stayed for the spring semester. That used to be called "retention." I guess re-enrollment sounds better.
The telltale in the Star article is the first sentence: "enrollment numbers have continued to drop, but the amount of students staying for another semester has increased."
(Nitpicking, but should that read "number of students" and not "amount of students?")
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - BDB5yp - 02-06-2023 11:28 AM
I would definitely put more weight on Fall enrollment.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Klake1987 - 02-06-2023 11:31 AM
Less student fees for athletics
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Dog Fan - 02-06-2023 11:35 AM
(02-06-2023 11:31 AM)Klake1987 Wrote: Less student fees for athletics
Then Athletics should be coddling and heavily marketing the donors, right?
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - NIUfilmmaker - 02-06-2023 11:46 AM
Once again Lisa Freeman and team write their enrollment failures off on Covid.
"...which the university attributes to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Covid is over, get us back to 20k students, or give the job to someone who can.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HuskieJ - 02-06-2023 12:50 PM
(02-06-2023 11:46 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote: Once again Lisa Freeman and team write their enrollment failures off on Covid.
"...which the university attributes to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Covid is over, get us back to 20k students, or give the job to someone who can.
She is not the Leader that NIU needs right now. Caretaker of a huge decline started by her predecessor. Might as well be lumped in with EIU or WIU now. Pathetic. I guess Covid skipped right over ISU and UIC. They are holding their own despite the smaller number of HS grads in the state. That virus is very tricky in how it only hit NIU so hard.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Dog Fan - 02-06-2023 01:04 PM
I would like to know what marketing NIU is doing to get more students. They need to take an aggressive approach. Or will they say they have no money to mount a campaign to get students to come to NIU? Have they done surveys to determine why students are selecting ISU and UIC over NIU? And if so, are they doing anything about it, or are they just sticking with the COVID excuse?
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HawaiiToNIU - 02-06-2023 01:25 PM
(02-06-2023 01:04 PM)Dog Fan Wrote: I would like to know what marketing NIU is doing to get more students. They need to take an aggressive approach. Or will they say they have no money to mount a campaign to get students to come to NIU? Have they done surveys to determine why students are selecting ISU and UIC over NIU? And if so, are they doing anything about it, or are they just sticking with the COVID excuse?
You hear Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport is building a new perimeter fence? Also big things happening in downtown DeKalb, as they reduced traffic from two lanes to one. And they are performing another study on a Metra station again.
Everything is turning up Milhouse.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Klake1987 - 02-06-2023 01:44 PM
(02-06-2023 11:35 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:(02-06-2023 11:31 AM)Klake1987 Wrote: Less student fees for athletics
Then Athletics should be coddling and heavily marketing the donors, right?
Agreed, problem is this is a small number.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HuskiePride12 - 02-06-2023 02:19 PM
(02-06-2023 01:25 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:04 PM)Dog Fan Wrote: I would like to know what marketing NIU is doing to get more students. They need to take an aggressive approach. Or will they say they have no money to mount a campaign to get students to come to NIU? Have they done surveys to determine why students are selecting ISU and UIC over NIU? And if so, are they doing anything about it, or are they just sticking with the COVID excuse?
You hear Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport is building a new perimeter fence? Also big things happening in downtown DeKalb, as they reduced traffic from two lanes to one. And they are performing another study on a Metra station again.
Everything is turning up Milhouse.
I know you are joking, but the downtown area is a positive towards the community and wish the university would try to promote more down there. I took my brother and dad there after one of the games and they were very surprised how clean/maintained and now modern the whole area looks.
Night and day from a lot of Campus and how the buildings are looking. Need to bring that "communiversity" together as the school doesn't have funds to renovate or modernise really anything. There are bars, entertainment and restaurants that if more students were there would help more funnel money to the city IMO.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Dog Fan - 02-06-2023 02:38 PM
(02-06-2023 02:19 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:25 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:04 PM)Dog Fan Wrote: I would like to know what marketing NIU is doing to get more students. They need to take an aggressive approach. Or will they say they have no money to mount a campaign to get students to come to NIU? Have they done surveys to determine why students are selecting ISU and UIC over NIU? And if so, are they doing anything about it, or are they just sticking with the COVID excuse?
You hear Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport is building a new perimeter fence? Also big things happening in downtown DeKalb, as they reduced traffic from two lanes to one. And they are performing another study on a Metra station again.
Everything is turning up Milhouse.
I know you are joking, but the downtown area is a positive towards the community and wish the university would try to promote more down there. I took my brother and dad there after one of the games and they were very surprised how clean/maintained and now modern the whole area looks.
Night and day from a lot of Campus and how the buildings are looking. Need to bring that "communiversity" together as the school doesn't have funds to renovate or modernise really anything. There are bars, entertainment and restaurants that if more students were there would help more funnel money to the city IMO.
Downtown DeKalb is fine, and it is what it is. It is fine for the townies, but there is not much there to attract students, although it's getting better. The marijuana shop opening very soon downtown will certainly help. DeKalb is a conservative town and has not changed all that much. The students today have different interests and demands. When I was at NIU, there were a few bars and clothing, variety, and drug stores downtown, and that's all we needed. An easy walk downtown, and you could go for a drink and do some shopping. Today, that won't do it. But, I don't believe the downtown is the reason why kids are not choosing NIU. It's definitely something else.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HawaiiToNIU - 02-06-2023 03:25 PM
(02-06-2023 02:19 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:25 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:04 PM)Dog Fan Wrote: I would like to know what marketing NIU is doing to get more students. They need to take an aggressive approach. Or will they say they have no money to mount a campaign to get students to come to NIU? Have they done surveys to determine why students are selecting ISU and UIC over NIU? And if so, are they doing anything about it, or are they just sticking with the COVID excuse?
You hear Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport is building a new perimeter fence? Also big things happening in downtown DeKalb, as they reduced traffic from two lanes to one. And they are performing another study on a Metra station again.
Everything is turning up Milhouse.
I know you are joking, but the downtown area is a positive towards the community and wish the university would try to promote more down there. I took my brother and dad there after one of the games and they were very surprised how clean/maintained and now modern the whole area looks.
Night and day from a lot of Campus and how the buildings are looking. Need to bring that "communiversity" together as the school doesn't have funds to renovate or modernise really anything. There are bars, entertainment and restaurants that if more students were there would help more funnel money to the city IMO.
You got me. I was mostly making fun of all the things we've been bickering over this off-season.
At this point, any improvement in any way is a good thing for the town and university. Changes are long overdue and we are all entitled for being critical of this administration and town, as things continue to look worse off than when we were there.
I was there when NIU was 25,000 strong, lllini Tires, and Lukulos was open. The biggest threat in Greek Row was drunkenly kicking a empty beer box filled with rocks.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Illinoisan - 02-06-2023 03:47 PM
I grew up in Springfield area and graduated HS in 2014. I did 2 years of community college, and while looking at all of the universities in state that were nearby like SIU, SIU-E, Ill State, I was shocked to find that it was cheaper for me to pay out of state tuition at any bordering state school.
So I decided on UW-Whitewater where I found that more than half of the student body was from Northern IL area. Not a surprise, they were there the same reason I was - the state schools were ridiculously priced. The same is true at pretty much any state school bordering IL...absolutely chock full of students from Illinois who left. This has deep impacts -- young people like me also are less likely to return to IL after graduating, and that's less taxbase for the future, and the problem continues to spiral as it has.
I'm simply not interested in paying 30k a year to go to NIU, or any other directional Illinois school. The same sentiment echoed throughout my entire HS class. Almost none stayed in state. This was at a time when I really liked NIU's football team during the Lynch years. I would have liked to have gone there -- but it made absolutely no sense and would have been a mistake monetarily. I took one look at the sticker price, and said no thanks.
That's the bottom line there. Still a big fan of NIU football, though! I may be the lone "T-shirt" NIU fan here.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HuskiePride12 - 02-06-2023 03:53 PM
(02-06-2023 02:38 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:(02-06-2023 02:19 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:25 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:(02-06-2023 01:04 PM)Dog Fan Wrote: I would like to know what marketing NIU is doing to get more students. They need to take an aggressive approach. Or will they say they have no money to mount a campaign to get students to come to NIU? Have they done surveys to determine why students are selecting ISU and UIC over NIU? And if so, are they doing anything about it, or are they just sticking with the COVID excuse?
You hear Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport is building a new perimeter fence? Also big things happening in downtown DeKalb, as they reduced traffic from two lanes to one. And they are performing another study on a Metra station again.
Everything is turning up Milhouse.
I know you are joking, but the downtown area is a positive towards the community and wish the university would try to promote more down there. I took my brother and dad there after one of the games and they were very surprised how clean/maintained and now modern the whole area looks.
Night and day from a lot of Campus and how the buildings are looking. Need to bring that "communiversity" together as the school doesn't have funds to renovate or modernise really anything. There are bars, entertainment and restaurants that if more students were there would help more funnel money to the city IMO.
Downtown DeKalb is fine, and it is what it is. It is fine for the townies, but there is not much there to attract students, although it's getting better. The marijuana shop opening very soon downtown will certainly help. DeKalb is a conservative town and has not changed all that much. The students today have different interests and demands. When I was at NIU, there were a few bars and clothing, variety, and drug stores downtown, and that's all we needed. An easy walk downtown, and you could go for a drink and do some shopping. Today, that won't do it. But, I don't believe the downtown is the reason why kids are not choosing NIU. It's definitely something else.
It looks like a shithole through a lot of the parts of campus and there is no nightlife. Two major reasons.
Bars/nightlife keep students around on the weekend whether you drink or don't and unfortunately NIU doesn't have many. The ones they do are spread out not convenient for students to walk between multiple locations at night. Any Big Ten school has a row of them usually and weekends are jammed packed. The layout of NIU is not the greatest.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - pvk75 - 02-06-2023 04:17 PM
Hate to agree with your first line but it is what it is. Deferred maintenance throughout campus = rundown facilities everywhere. No activities other than sports in the Convo. Even with FB going, Huskie Stadium is a dump. Death of VCB pretty much killed that commercial strip. Don't think there's much of a "Greek Row." Don't know if refurbished Holmes added much.
When I do get there for an event, I park, I attend, I leave. No reason to stick around, even less for students. TV/online, TV/online, TV/online means live attendance is unnecessary. They might as well stay in the dorm/apartment and watch whatever. The value of being there "live" has been "institutionalized" and regulated, if it exists at all.
NIU just has no atmosphere of any kind. It has no scheme or theme or style. No reason to "rah rah" anything. The admin at all levels top down is all about meetings, internalism, social engineering, painting streets and sidewalks with kiss-a signs that turn people off, etc etc. Do students feel like they're at "their" university?
Somebody once said something about how a place assumes the atmosphere of its leadership. If it's bleh, you'll get bleh.
Some good things are scattered ... new alumni event SE of Huskie Stadium for home FB games, Touchdown Village, Victor E Pub ... but that's all for monetizing and not really for students.
Maybe I'm just depressed, or just getting old, but what is there for students? They came, they went to class, they paid the bills, they got their grades, they got their degree, and see-ya-bye. In between is a whole lotta gotta walk-talk-act-dress this way b.s. And NIU has that depressing "nothing to see here" look about it.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HawaiiToNIU - 02-06-2023 04:36 PM
(02-06-2023 04:17 PM)pvk75 Wrote: Hate to agree with your first line but it is what it is. Deferred maintenance throughout campus = rundown facilities everywhere. No activities other than sports in the Convo. Even with FB going, Huskie Stadium is a dump. Death of VCB pretty much killed that commercial strip. Don't think there's much of a "Greek Row." Don't know if refurbished Holmes added much.
When I do get there for an event, I park, I attend, I leave. No reason to stick around, even less for students. TV/online, TV/online, TV/online means live attendance is unnecessary. They might as well stay in the dorm/apartment and watch whatever. The value of being there "live" has been "institutionalized" and regulated, if it exists at all.
NIU just has no atmosphere of any kind. It has no scheme or theme or style. No reason to "rah rah" anything. The admin at all levels top down is all about meetings, internalism, social engineering, painting streets and sidewalks with kiss-a signs that turn people off, etc etc. Do students feel like they're at "their" university?
Somebody once said something about how a place assumes the atmosphere of its leadership. If it's bleh, you'll get bleh.
Some good things are scattered ... new alumni event SE of Huskie Stadium for home FB games, Touchdown Village, Victor E Pub ... but that's all for monetizing and not really for students.
Maybe I'm just depressed, or just getting old, but what is there for students? They came, they went to class, they paid the bills, they got their grades, they got their degree, and see-ya-bye. In between is a whole lotta gotta walk-talk-act-dress this way b.s. And NIU has that depressing "nothing to see here" look about it.
I don't disagree with you. Other than Fatty's Potato Salad and the Dekalb Walmart, what else is there for a mainstream alumni draw?
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - randyfensfanclub1 - 02-06-2023 04:56 PM
It's not hard to see, no secret. But there is no magic solution that a school president, AD can solve.
Enrollment makeup, the state of the campus itself is a reflection of the people of the state and their beliefs. In turn, the kids, their parents are making decisions to go elsewhere, based off of those factors on top of cost, education, social value and in some cases, as their parents want and some on here already have..... getting the hell out of Illinois.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - Dog Fan - 02-06-2023 04:59 PM
(02-06-2023 04:36 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:(02-06-2023 04:17 PM)pvk75 Wrote: Hate to agree with your first line but it is what it is. Deferred maintenance throughout campus = rundown facilities everywhere. No activities other than sports in the Convo. Even with FB going, Huskie Stadium is a dump. Death of VCB pretty much killed that commercial strip. Don't think there's much of a "Greek Row." Don't know if refurbished Holmes added much.
When I do get there for an event, I park, I attend, I leave. No reason to stick around, even less for students. TV/online, TV/online, TV/online means live attendance is unnecessary. They might as well stay in the dorm/apartment and watch whatever. The value of being there "live" has been "institutionalized" and regulated, if it exists at all.
NIU just has no atmosphere of any kind. It has no scheme or theme or style. No reason to "rah rah" anything. The admin at all levels top down is all about meetings, internalism, social engineering, painting streets and sidewalks with kiss-a signs that turn people off, etc etc. Do students feel like they're at "their" university?
Somebody once said something about how a place assumes the atmosphere of its leadership. If it's bleh, you'll get bleh.
Some good things are scattered ... new alumni event SE of Huskie Stadium for home FB games, Touchdown Village, Victor E Pub ... but that's all for monetizing and not really for students.
Maybe I'm just depressed, or just getting old, but what is there for students? They came, they went to class, they paid the bills, they got their grades, they got their degree, and see-ya-bye. In between is a whole lotta gotta walk-talk-act-dress this way b.s. And NIU has that depressing "nothing to see here" look about it.
I don't disagree with you. Other than Fatty's Potato Salad and the Dekalb Walmart, what else is there for a mainstream alumni draw?
Is it any coincidence that the decline started when the Grotto closed? You now know the reason.
RE: Enrollment down to 14,364 - HuskieDave - 02-06-2023 05:30 PM
(02-06-2023 04:56 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote: It's not hard to see, no secret. But there is no magic solution that a school president, AD can solve.
Enrollment makeup, the state of the campus itself is a reflection of the people of the state and their beliefs. In turn, the kids, their parents are making decisions to go elsewhere, based off of those factors on top of cost, education, social value and in some cases, as their parents want and some on here already have..... getting the hell out of Illinois.
Illinois State and UIC are both in Illinois and neither is having an enrollment problem.