EIU Reports 5% Jump In Spring Enrollment, After Years Of Declines
The Old Main Building on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. EIU reports a 5% jump in spring enrollment, its first increase in more than a decade. Travis Stansel / Illinois Public Media
Eastern Illinois University is reporting a five percent increase in spring enrollment --- its first enrollment increase in more than ten years.
The state school in Charleston released so-called 10th-day data Wednesday, showing a spring enrollment total of 7,016 full and part-time students, compared to 6,673 last spring.
Eastern Illinois University reports its strongest enrollment jumps among undergraduate transfer students. Their number increased five-fold from last spring, from 260 to 1,335. That increase offset drops in the number of continuing and returning students.
University officials said in a news release that the boost in enrollment is largely due to EIU’s Vitalization Project. That’s a multi-year plan to address many of the problems higher education faces in Illinois. The plan includes re-investing in marketing, admissions and enrollment.
EIU officials are "cautiously optimistic" that the growth trend will continue in the fall, as long as Illinois avoids a second budget stalemate.
The last time Eastern Illinois University saw an increase in enrollment for any semester was in 2006.