Fall Semester Enrollments at SCSU
by Silence Dogood
On the website for SCSU’s Office of Strategy, Planning and Effectiveness, you can find the following graph of the historical Fall FYE enrollment.
The Fall 2014 enrollment is now in and the result is 5,806 FYE. This is not the ‘final’ enrollment number because that is not due until 45 days after the end of the semester. However, for all intents and purposes, since there aren’t a whole lot of people still being registered for classes, which ended on December 19th, 2014, this is pretty darn close to the final enrollment number for Fall 2014.
At 5,806 FYE, the Fall enrollment will be smaller than at any time at least since Fall 1999, which goes back fifteen years! In fact, it is the first time that the enrollment will be below 6,000 FYE in the past fifteen years as well.
Since the peak Fall enrollment in Fall 2010 through Fall 2014, the enrollment has fallen 1,377 FYE, which corresponds to a loss of 19.2% over four years!
A misattributed (but frequently cited) quote of former Sen. Everett Dirksen (Republican from Illinois):
“A million here, a million there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
is quite appropriate. After losing 481 FYE in Fall 2011, 336 FYE in Fall 2012, 288 FYE in Fall 2013 and 272 FYE in Fall 2014, pretty soon you’re talking real enrollment losses. That translates into real money.
As a rough estimate, each FYE is worth about $11,500 in tuition, fees and state appropriation. Consequently, a 1,377 FYE enrollment loss corresponds to a loss of approximately $15,800,000. For a university with a budget of just over $200,000,000, these kinds of losses mean we’re “talking real money.” Since SCSU is not in the business of printing money, these kinds of losses add up to real problems ahead for SCSU. For FY15, a budget shortfall of $9,542,000 has led President Potter to state that there is the potential for the loss of 125 positions. These are not happy times at the university “high on oak crowned banks.”
Where is the St Cloud business community? As SCSU goes, so goes the City.There should be a massive effort for change in the current inept leadership. More diversity, more refugees and a local Newspaper that is a clueless (possibly) Co conspirator will NOT WORK ANY MORE.
Kleis had better get unfocused a departing airline partner with empty flights to Chicago from an empty airport to the plummeting enrollment of the cash cow, pothole filled roads, expanding goat markets and 88% lunch assistance programs due to the ever welcoming of resettled refugees. He and Potter are ” ex military thing bud’s”. The mentality of “admitting a mistake is a sign of weakness” is a one way highway to nowhere FAST. The wispered conversations are now FACT