Brenda Major thinks the state of the economy is hurting Eastern.

She and two deans spoke at length about efforts to make Eastern better able to compete for new students at Faculty Senate’s meeting Tuesday.

“The economy is killing us,” said Major, director of admissions. “We were listening to parents calling us crying, saying ‘we can’t afford to send our kids to Eastern.'”

Major said she could not yet give an accurate count of incoming freshmen this fall, but cited a rough count of 1,836.

The average ACT scores and Grade Point Averages of incoming freshmen jumped this year, Major said.

“We have an average ACT of 21.5,” she said. “Last year was just below 21. We’re getting students that are adequately prepared.”

Major added Eastern is still one of the most affordable universities in Illinois.

Robert Augustine, dean of the Graduate School, spoke to the senate about graduate enrollment increasing between 2000 and 2008.

“We’ve had a 41 percent increase in graduate enrollment and 47 percent improvement in (the number of) degree candidates,” Augustine said.

Augustine said the success behind the increase is because of the many comprehensive reviews of graduate programs.

Still, new technology is making it harder to attract new students, he added.

“Our MBA program is under constant stress because of the new programs appearing online,” he said.

Augustine also spoke of Eastern’s efforts to attract international students, and the university’s goal to have 150 international students on campus yearly.

This fall, Eastern attracted 58 new international students from 25 countries.

Efforts to compete for these students are under threat from high out-of-state tuition rates, Augustine said.

“This is a tough race,” he said. “Our out-of-state tuition rates are not competitive with those of other states.”

Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said reducing out-of-state tuition just for international students could be a problem.

“Most of our out-of-state students do become in-state,” Lord said. “International students can’t do that, but some out-of-state students never do.”

Augustine said Eastern’s study abroad program has grown, meeting its goal of having 300 students study abroad yearly for the past two years.

He credited study abroad director Wendy Williamson for creating an online course-finder. He added the idea has become the “gold standard for study abroad.”

Augustine warned that the declining value of U.S. dollars is discouraging many students from studying abroad in Europe, but encouraging some students to study in Asia, where exchange rates favor U.S. dollars.

Bonnie Irwin, dean of the Honors College, spoke to the senate about the Honors College efforts in keeping the college competitive by getting honors programs into all departments on campus and making honors classes more challenging.

“Is a student choosing our honors program over someone else’s?” Irwin said. “That’s how we measure success.”

Senate member John Best, who is also a member of the honors board, said getting students to make that choice, even through scholarships, can be difficult.

“Everybody’s shopping around,” Best said. “These students slam down their credentials and say ‘it’s your presidential scholarship against someone else’s. We’re getting dealmakers.”

Joe Astrouski can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmastrouski@eiu.edu.

Director of admissions Brenda Major crosses her fingers in hopes of reaching her goal of new transfer students coming to Eastern this year. Major gave her report on what we can expect and hope for from student admissions this year and next. (Robbie Wroble

(more…)