Reaping the Whirlwind at Mizzou: Enrollment Plummets

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/433171/print

 Reaping the Whirlwind at Mizzou: Enrollment Plummets
By Michael Q. McShane — March 24, 2016

The Book of Hosea cautions us: “They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind.” Student protests on the University of Missouri’s campus, and the administration’s reaction, sowed some serious wind. Recent news that freshman enrollment is projected to drop 25 percent, creating a $32 million funding deficit for the campus, is the whirlwind. If the university does not clean up its act, who knows what will blow in next?

It should be noted that this shortfall is not a result of legislators in Jefferson City cutting funding. This is prospective students freely deciding that they don’t want to spend their college years as Missouri Tigers; they and their families would rather take their money elsewhere. That should terrify administrators in Columbia. Will Mizzou go the way of other brands scorned by the marketplace, like Kodak, Pontiac, or Ask Jeeves?

Mizzou desperately needs to get its house in order. Most important, it needs an administration that realizes that protests on university campuses have been happening for decades. In many cases, there is an element of truth to the protestors’ grievances, but it soon gets wrapped up in the narcissism and self-righteousness of 18- to 22-year-olds. The job of administrators is to separate the wheat from the chaff. They must address the real issues that are affecting students without losing sight of the fact that it is college kids making the demands.

continued

[mountaineer]

 Mizzou's enrollment plummet is more drastic than previously projected
    By Koran Addo St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 5, 2016

This fall could mark the smallest class of incoming freshmen at the University of Missouri-Columbia in nearly a decade as the school continues to lose students, partly because of last fall’s protests.

The university on Wednesday announced the amount of students paying freshman tuition deposits — a key indicator of coming enrollment — has decreased by 1,470 compared to last year.

It’s nearly 600 fewer students than what was projected in February, when the university was estimating 900 fewer incoming freshmen.

What it means is that Mizzou could have a freshman class of fewer than 5,000 students for the first time since 2007.

In contrast, the university enrolled 7,600 freshmen last fall. That number includes second-year students who did not complete enough credits to qualify as sophomores.

University administrators note that they’ve been expecting a drop-off for some time, as there are fewer high school students in the pipeline.

But last’s fall’s protests have also played a part.

“As we’ve been talking to prospective students and parents, we’ve been told the events of last fall have played a role in their decision-making process,” spokesman Christian Basi said.

School administrators have said they are seeing less interest from out-of-state students, and recruiters are hearing more concerns from students in the Chicago area, in particular.

Barbara Rupp, the university’s director of admissions, has said there’s potential to lose students from rural areas, given how polarizing last fall’s protests were.

The enrollment woes are just some of the problems Mizzou has faced since the campus found itself in the national spotlight late last year as students protested a series of racist incidents, eventually toppling the university’s top leadership.  ...

Rest of story at St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[geronl]

They learned nothing, they are now going overboard hunting down dissent like FR