One week into the Fall Semester, SIU officials say this year's enrollment on the Carbondale campus will likely be down.
President Glenn Poshard says he's encouraged by the spike in new Freshmen this year, but points out bringing in new faces is only one part of a complicated puzzle: "Retention is more difficult than recruitment in the sense that the economy and other things that affect a family's ability - particularly a middle- and low-income family's ability to send their kids to school - is still going badly. The unemployment rate in this state is up, we haven't solved a lot of our financial problems. So, there's still a great deal of pressure on those families."
Poshard says all of SIU's programs remain the least expensive when compared to their peers, but admits higher education is a big burden for students and their families. Official fall enrollment won't be released for another week.
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