By: Diane Benjamin
The media dutifully reported the freshman class at ISU is up 10% this year. They mentioned the class is bigger than in recent years, they neglected to report real numbers.
Incoming freshman LAST year was down 9.3%: https://blnnews.com/2017/09/07/numbers-lie/
Note that number was reported by the same WGLT who reported this year the number was up. http://www.wglt.org/post/isu-freshman-class-grows-10-percent
Buried near the end of the story is total enrollment is down 149 students (.7%). International students increased by 65. I’m betting no plans have been made for them returning home. Over-staying visas is a large part of illegal immigration.
Worse, as I reported in June of 2016, ISU pays the legal fees for foreign students: https://blnnews.com/2016/06/17/your-taxes-import-labor-isu-u-of-i/
Without the 65 foreign students ISU likely funded with tax dollars (it would take a FOIA to see how much), the total enrollment would be down 214 students.
ISU calls this diversity. Assimilation is not the goal of diversity. That’s why people formerly migrated to America, now they come to change it. You get to pay for it!
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Sponsored:
They can pretend things are OK all they want but there will be no escaping the realities of the coming 21st Century world. They have reached the peak of their importance and enrollment is heading down the backside of their bell curve. Hundreds of private colleges will close in the next few years and one only has to look at SIU to see ISU’s future.
I think (and hope!) the bubble will take longer to burst than you think, but you’re both right, it Will burst. A lot of students at ISU have no business going to college, especially on the taxpayer’s dime, so enrollment Should shrink unless ISU becomes a beneficiary of other campuses shutting down. That latter is a nice thought, but we shouldn’t bet the farm on it…
We must understand what is happening and the rate in which change is happening. We are in what has been described as exponential technological change. Now everyone (not Serving Tari and No Name of course) understands what exponential is right? Well that is what is happening to our world right now. The 21st Century is predicted to usher in more change than the previous 10,000 years of human history. What that means is something like this: 3 years equals 5 years and then 3 years equals 7 years and then 3 years equals 10 years when compared to the 20th Century change rate. So as we move farther into the 21st Century this change rate will be accelerating. It is already accelerating at a rate that we (humans) are finding hard to understand. We are all from the 20th Century and grown accustomed to the relatively linear slow upward change rate. We think of 5 years of change in terms of what we were used to in the 20th Century. The change rate in the 21st Century will not be linear at all… it is the shape of a hockey stick.
With all this being said what does this translate to in the real world? A perfect example is retail. We all knew that retail was being hurt by the technology that allows online retailers to sell directly to consumers. The signs were all there in the retail industry for those who could see them. Then suddenly in 2017 and now in 2018 thousands of retail stores are closing. The warning signs are everywhere for higher education for those who want to see them. So the same kind of lurch of wholesale closings will happen. Private small colleges will be first and then many state supported schools will be next. There is going to be a massive shakeout in higher education and only the best will remain. Those who remain will be forced to change dramatically and become completely different institutions.
Chain restaurants are next. And yes coming to our world right now is AI. Artificial Intelligence will had a huge multiplier to the change rate. Brick an mortar education is already dead… we just don’t realize it quite yet. So what we see at State Farm and ISU is the calm before the storm. No matter how our leadership or our elites what to believe that both of these institutions will be around into the foreseeable future, the reality is that they are both 20th Century dinosaurs sinking into the tar pits of the 21st Century change rate.
The higher education bubble is going to burst. When it does, college towns are in for a rude awakening. Sad, but true. Dietz and his pals in the media can high-five each other and celebrate this “win” for the community, but the future of higher education looks nothing like ISU.
ISU has been flooded with expired visas and expired passports since the 90’s.
I have seen hundreds of them over the years. Higher education is exempt from
public scrutiny and above the laws of this land.
Did you see this? ISU built an “adventure center”:
https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2018/09/redbird-adventure-center-brings-new-leadership-and-team-building-opportunities-to-illinois-state/
Taxes or foundation pay? I got sick reading it
The adventure center sounds like a sand box for adults. How to play well with others is or should be taught in kindergarten. All of the extracurricular sports programs should be building the understanding of team work.
ISU is proud of offering remedial soft skills training?? SMH
ISU is proud of a Lot of things they should be embarrassed about…
Yes I see that… an adult playground…. really? And students can now rent all kinds of outdoor fun equipment… wonderful… What does this have to do with education?
I was actually somewhat encouraged by the news, a year or so ago, that ISU was exploring increasing offerings in engineering. Imagine that! A marketable skill. However, I have not heard anything more about it. Perhaps it is in that slowly developing stage where there is no real news, but I would love to see that happen. Get rid of a few of the worthless majors, for which there are no jobs, and get students the training and skills they can actually apply to a real-world situation. It is clearly needed. The University of Illinois Engineering school is the class of the world, but that is who they admit. I would love to see the metrics on out-of-state and out-of-nation students in the U of I Engineering. I imagine it is high. They don’t publish them, probably because Illinois residents would be outraged.
Yes the days of diploma mills (ISU) are numbered and institutions like the University of Illinois will survive… will they change? Of course, they are changing as we speak…. unlike ISU who is doubling down on what worked before.
See the new story!