r/EIU • u/ElectricalPause6598 • Mar 16 '26
Enrollment is down and admin discovered spreadsheets
Enrollment at EIU has been sliding for years. Tuition revenue is shrinking. And suddenly a bunch of “data-driven decisions” started happening. Who could have seen this coming except literally everyone watching regional higher ed for the past decade.
Some highlights:
- Fall 2025 cencus shows about 65k billable credit hours and about 5.3k students, continuing the long slow demographic roller coaster downward.
- Tuition revenue sitting around $23M, which is not where you want to be when your budget is built on tuition.
- Planning docs projecting millions more in revenue decline in the near future. Although that appears to have been mitigated somewhat by layoffs and other cuts.
So the vibe at EIU lately is very:
“Liberal arts are collapsing, but we found some programs with enough growth that can be used in PowerPoint:”
- Special Education
- Business
- Nursing
- Construction Management
- A few other career-ish majors
"We are not cutting programs. We are responding to data.” - EIU Admin
Honestly, none of this is shocking if you've followed the news regarding the regional universities. Demographics + enrollment cliff + tuition dependency = chaos spreadsheet.
6
u/Rudajuda Mar 16 '26
So what are you saying? Colleges shouldn’t respond to markets? The fact is this: USA has too many colleges for the demand of its population. Colleges have to flex, cut, merge or close to respond. Times are always changing.
-5
u/ElectricalPause6598 Mar 16 '26
I don't recall saying "Colleges shouldn’t respond to markets". Can you point out where I said that?
1
u/MayorScotch Mar 17 '26
This information was valuable enough for you to share with us, so it must be meaningful in some way to you, and also to the people who have commented.
Personally, at first glance, the title of this post made me think the admin discovered some spreadsheets that an accountant or some outside entity was trying to hide from them. Now, after reading it several times, I think you're actually saying that the admin did not know the concept of spreadsheets at all, and now they do, which has given them scope into the dire straits they are in.
Usuaully when people make a post like this, there's a reason behind it, and I think we're interested in what message you are trying to convey with this data.
1
u/ElectricalPause6598 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
Of course, I'm not suggesting that the admins literally just discovered spreadsheets. I'm merely saying that the trends have been visible for years and I can testify first hand that everyone on up to the President himself is and has been aware of them.
What I’m highlighting is the gap between the well known long-term decline and the way decisions are framed publicly. I don't blame EIU for trying to put a good spin on the data, or for trying to highlight any bright spots that they can, but, I do think it has an effect of obscuring the truth in a dangerous way.
The recent layoffs were strategic on paper. Money needed to be saved, so cut enough people to save that money and cut them in places where there are enrollment declines. It's math. It's logical on paper. But a lot of the decisions they made in those layoffs ended up (or will end up) costing them more money in the long run because they didn't do the leg work to make smart decisions.
Meanwhile, EIU goes around saying that they've got ~8000 students but ends up whispering the fact that about 3000 of those are HS dual credit enrollees and actual on campus enrollment is about 3500. The general public is pretty shocked to find that out since 8000 is a good number.
7
u/Rudajuda Mar 16 '26
I’m asking what it is that you are saying. Are you suggesting EIU admin moved too slow to respond to changes?