While fall enrollment at ISU has reached a 19-year high, university officials have plans to grow the size of the student-body to an all-time record while at the same ensure that more students complete a four-year degree.
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New goals for ISU: 14,000 students by 2017, higher graduation rates
- Thread starter Jason Svoboda
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I love how it's only us 3 thus far on this thread but Sack why are you concerned with this?? I see it as a positive, but only if they continue to raise the entrance standards and not take in a bunch of "Joe Smooh's" who can barely graduate high school. From the time I transferred to ISU to when I graduated in that 2 and a half year period they had raised the entrance GPA from 2.5 to 3.0 not sure if they'll continue to raise that. I think it all depends on what students they go after and which students will want to come to ISU to get a great education or just party their asses off and flunk out. You may have a point though this will either make or break for ISU in the long run.
I feel the same way. I am all for growing the university, but if the result of that is to begin to just let warm bodies in so that the numbers go up, then we should pass on that. As long as we continue to let in quality young people who have the goal and the ability to graduate, then I am all for the idea of growing the student body.
Bally #50
The JSW Level
Since the administration has proven that they can "handle" difficult situations to this point, and don't have a habit of biting off more than can chew, I am all for it. The goal is ambitious for sure, but as long as they don't have kids sleeping in the hallways of residence halls or overflow for months on end, go for it.
bent20
The Odum Level
The bigger the better for ISU and Terre Haute. Just has to be done right.
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Bally #50
The JSW Level
At 500 more a year roughly, my guess is that some announcements are forthcoming on housing. That is the ONLY way this goal is obtainable.
Sycamore Proud
The Nicks Level
The enrollment increase sounds reasonable to me. I have now, and always have had, a problem with entrance requirements in general. Any state supported school should grant admission to any graduate of a state accredited high school if the student has successfully competed the core 40 requirement. Make the first semester as tough as you want, but they deserve the opportunity. I know many will not agree with me, and that is fine. It's just the way I feel.
IndianaState45
The All-MVC Level
I feel like I read somewhere that our admission standards had been significantly raised in the last five years. Obviously this isn't Stanford or Harvard, but improvement is a good thing. I would assume the current standards would be upheld. Also 14K is our "capacity level" if we go to 15k we have to invest in significantly more infastructure. 14k we just need a few more dorms. The new dorm will go in north of the rec center in the parking lot. Another dorm /or multi use facility may go in between 5th and 6th and wabash.
ISU already has a big parking lot problem, they seriously can't be thinking about new dorm in that parking lot by the rec center. Hell I heard that where the rec center stands now used to be a huge parking lot.
yep in that parking lot they are going to build a couple new dorms. They would like to use the land that the old school of bus. and old school of ed. are on for parking but they cant tear them down yet because of some bird that has a nest in one of them. If they can get that resolved and implode those towers there would be about the same amount of parking as there is now (which is not enough ).
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14,000 would be full capacity at Indiana State... after that, you need to start making some decisions about adding classrooms, etc.
We have gradually raised the admission's requirements over the last 5-6 years... Adding the Laptop Scholarship has helped raise the academic profile of each incoming class... in the first year that we offered that scholarship, we had about 750 people qualify... we are now up over 1,600 - although we do allow transfers to be qualified now as well...
If we get to 14,000, the university will have to make some big decisions... make more room.... be more selective...
We have gradually raised the admission's requirements over the last 5-6 years... Adding the Laptop Scholarship has helped raise the academic profile of each incoming class... in the first year that we offered that scholarship, we had about 750 people qualify... we are now up over 1,600 - although we do allow transfers to be qualified now as well...
If we get to 14,000, the university will have to make some big decisions... make more room.... be more selective...
IndianaState45
The All-MVC Level
Yep new dorm is going there. They can always put new lots in when they knock down the old School of Business and Education buildings.
Yes, and they already own a bunch of property on the East side of campus...
People have been complaining about parking on campus since at least the 1950's. The real issue is that people can't park right next to the building they want to go into! A little walking wouldn't hurt most people nowadays.
I would love to see ISU keep growing. With IU pretty much abandoning the in-state students in favor of out-of-state and international students, this opens up an unprecedented opportunity for ISU. I hope the current administration takes advantage. I'm sure, given what Dr. Bradley has accomplished thus far, that they will!!!
I would love to see ISU keep growing. With IU pretty much abandoning the in-state students in favor of out-of-state and international students, this opens up an unprecedented opportunity for ISU. I hope the current administration takes advantage. I'm sure, given what Dr. Bradley has accomplished thus far, that they will!!!
I'm with Eleven on taking a big breath and recognizing growth for growth's sake is not always an unmitigated good thing. Growth entails the "big decisions"
Eleven puts forth and others as well. Here are my concerns and question:
Assuming many on this Forum are ISU grads, do you know the faculty to student ratio in the year you graduated? (I'm talking teaching faculty here, not the usual inflated figure that throws administrators and temps into the faculty side of the ratio.) In your estimation, was that ratio about right, too low or over-staffed? What is it now? What should it be for a student body of 14,000? If the ratio is going to fall, are more on-line courses a satisfying fix? Are you anxious to pay your kids' tuition to sit in front of a computer as s/he takes ISU courses? Are such depersonalized course offerings likely or less likely to lead to student retention and higher graduation rates?
Or, putting aside "the computer can solve every problem, human and otherwise, in the universe" which is the simplistic fad of the decade, should lower teacher to student ratios be solved by ever larger lecture hall courses? Profs are required in this setting to dust off straight lectures/power point puffery and limit direct student contact, questions, input to email messages. A good thing? Exams in large classes are increasingly "objective" in form, fewer requiring written responses, good or bad thing?
These are just some of the course construction, teacher to student questions/problems that come to mind. Personally, I favor a cut off of the ISU student population at 10,000. I'd call them "The !0." They would not get into ISU unless their record in high school and interviews demonstrated their readiness and motivation to take on difficult and demanding work in the classroom. Those that couldn't make the original cut for "The Ten" could re-apply in the future after demonstrating they could do the work by matriculating from, say, IU, Purdue, IUPUI. It would become an honor and a challenge to become a student at ISU. And, of course, ISU would also set itself apart from all other schools in the state (and the nation) by dropping all professional Big Buck sports programs. I would predict that within six to seven years ISU would be graduating 75% to 90% of its students. Only Rose Hulman would have more employers beating down the doors to hire ISU grads.
Now there's a goal and a dream worth pursuing. 14,000. Not so much.
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the entrance gpa for high school students is still a 2.5
I posted this in #16 above:
Sorry, I somehow garbled my opening reference to Eleven's concerns. It should read as follows:
Beyond my previous remarks, I would add this, pulling a one word line out of Bill Clinton's great National Democratic Convention speech:
"Arithmetic."
It goes without saying that ISU, the state of Indiana, and students and parents of students are vitally interested in graduation rates. It's my understanding that ISU currently graduates an abysmal 22% of its students. If this rate doesn't change, graduates from a 12,000 enrollment would be 2,640; from a 14,000 enrollment, 3080.
But let's all hope and all work toward, let’s say, very optimistically, a whopping 18% improvement in that rate, up to 40%. This would mean 5,600 graduates of the hoped for 14,000 would receive an ISU degree in 2021.
But here's some more arithmetic:
If the program of "The Ten" [described in Post #16] was put into place, an initiative bringing more qualified, more motivated, more fully supported students to ISU, I think it's reasonable to assume higher graduation rates of at least 25% beyond the assumed 40% rate of the “Growth Is Good Whatever the Numbers and Common Sense Might Tell Us” blind hoop-la. A 65% (40% + 25%) graduation rate (Butler U. Graduates 72% of its incoming frosh class) for 10,000 students would mean 6,500 grads in 2021. More graduates. Just what ISU, the state, and students and parents want and should get.
“Arithmetic.”
[Looking forward to critiques and corrections to my two posts, #16 and #18, on 14,000 vs. 10,000.]
Sorry, I somehow garbled my opening reference to Eleven's concerns. It should read as follows:
____________
Beyond my previous remarks, I would add this, pulling a one word line out of Bill Clinton's great National Democratic Convention speech:
"Arithmetic."
It goes without saying that ISU, the state of Indiana, and students and parents of students are vitally interested in graduation rates. It's my understanding that ISU currently graduates an abysmal 22% of its students. If this rate doesn't change, graduates from a 12,000 enrollment would be 2,640; from a 14,000 enrollment, 3080.
But let's all hope and all work toward, let’s say, very optimistically, a whopping 18% improvement in that rate, up to 40%. This would mean 5,600 graduates of the hoped for 14,000 would receive an ISU degree in 2021.
But here's some more arithmetic:
If the program of "The Ten" [described in Post #16] was put into place, an initiative bringing more qualified, more motivated, more fully supported students to ISU, I think it's reasonable to assume higher graduation rates of at least 25% beyond the assumed 40% rate of the “Growth Is Good Whatever the Numbers and Common Sense Might Tell Us” blind hoop-la. A 65% (40% + 25%) graduation rate (Butler U. Graduates 72% of its incoming frosh class) for 10,000 students would mean 6,500 grads in 2021. More graduates. Just what ISU, the state, and students and parents want and should get.
“Arithmetic.”
[Looking forward to critiques and corrections to my two posts, #16 and #18, on 14,000 vs. 10,000.]
There have already been some mentions made that ISU has a problem with graduation rates and also the students it is enrolling. Whether that is accurate or not is nothing something I can speak to.
I still say that with IU abandoning the in-state students, there are a lot of high quality high school students that might not have previously gone to ISU that we could get now. The growth very well could be done in a way that raises the academic profile of the University. Yes, growth presents its own problems, but in the world today, you are either growing or dying. There's no other way. Just hope the administration adequately plans for it!!!