If you had to throw a dart at the biggest issues of this school year for students, certainly Chancellor Walter Wendler's tuition increase and Carbondale's strange encroachment ordinance would be on the board.
But administrators have been dwelling on another dilemma throughout the year: SIU's enrollment plunge of more than 1,500 students in the fall and spring semesters combined.
There have been some grandiose plans formulated to solve the problem - all relying on the idea that if we clean up our image, we will eventually see more students packed into a Lawson lecture hall.
SIU President James Walker wants to dish out thousands of dollars to hire a marketing firm.
Wendler wants an alcohol-free campus to serve as the magic wand to wipe away SIUC's Halloween stain.
The Daily Egyptian advocated hiring a marketing director who would employ students as a part of the chancellor's "workship." The students would learn in their fields while aiding the maroon cause. This, of course, is the best solution.
While we agree that a grand approach is needed, we too often ignore the little things we can do - things that cost next to nothing.
It is refreshing then to see that the Admissions Office has adopted a simple strategy. Anne De Luca, assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, excitedly told the Daily Egyptian editorial board a few months ago of a grassroots approach to reaching potential students.
The Admissions Office supplies individual faculty members with the names of at least five students who show interest in the faculty's department. Then prospective students are called by the faculty and introduced to what the University has to offer them specifically. Larry Dietz, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, said research has shown that the more a university reaches out to a person, the more likely that person will enroll.
The Admissions Office has taken an important step in the right direction.
That phone call allows students and their parents to learn first-hand truths about this University that may be hidden by negative press. First, that we have great programs. Who is better to explain the details of our course work than the people teaching the courses?
Second, and maybe most importantly, we have great professors. We can tell people - up and down and left and right - that high quality in the classroom is something we have come to expect from the instructors at this University. But it just doesn't ring as true as a person-to-person call from a future professor who gets involved and takes an interest in students.
More than 170 faculty members have been taking time out on weekends and in the evenings to make the personal connection since March.
Any professor who - besides attending to her or his busy class and grading schedules and other administrative duties - makes such a generous effort should be lauded.
We appreciate the professors making these important calls, because they are the exact kind of professor students on the other end of the line are hoping to learn from: accessible, friendly and truly interested in the student's concerns and educational goals.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
