Decreasing enrollment has taken a toll on Eastern, and has impacted the various academic departments within the university.

Blair Lord, the vice president for Academic Affairs, said one of the departments that has been affected the most is the education department.

“Generally speaking, education areas have suffered the most in this downturn,” he said. “Part of that is because of what has happened in the profession of education in this state being slow in paying universities and school systems.”

He said the lagging economy is causing public schools to really hurt from the lack of funding.

“The word is out there among prospective students and they have been looking at other majors,” he said.

The formerly-named Basic Skills Test for education majors is also another factor of the decline in the education department.

“They changed the scores (a future teacher) needed to have drastically,” he said. “We went from 96 percent of people passing on their first try to having people try it multiple times and barely a third of students were getting by.”

Lord said the word got out that it was difficult to stay in education and the test was being changed yet again.

“They help by providing an alternative where students can take the ACT with the writing component and achieve a score of 22,” he said. “If they do that, they don’t have to take the Basic Skills Test.”

Lord said naturally not every education student has an ACT score of 22, but that there are many guides and practice tools a student can buy to prepare for the ACT.

“You’re more likely to be able to take your 20 ACT and get it to a 22 by doing the test preparation work than taking the Basic Skills Test that’s testing things many students haven’t thought of since ninth grade,” he said.

Lord said he thinks there will be a bit of a seat change because students will be less discouraged with the requirements, but could still be frustrated with the job market.

There are pockets in each college where there are declines, Lord said.

He said one department that has been increasing is kinesiology and sports studies.

“It’s grown like crazy,” he said.

However, the economy has been tough on all the departments and the university as a whole.

“Costs are tough, aid is getting scarcer and the economy is just making it hard for families to send people to college,” he said.

Lord said recruitment initiatives are focused mainly on the admissions staff, but Lord said the departments have a role to play in the process as well.

“They need to be available at open houses to help students out when they’re major-shopping,” he said. “Knowing what’s so unique about a certain program at Eastern and being able to tell students about that is key.”

Lord said from what he has heard from different departments, every area is eager to know what efforts are being done to increase enrollment and are glad to hear about the recruitment plan that is in process.

“We’ve made significant changes and we’re being proactive with this,” Lord said.

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.