Declining enrollment will factor into DePaul’s 2020-21 budget
President Esteban speaking at 2019’s State of the University address.
DePaul has begun its process for preparing a budget for the 2020-21 academic year, and the university says it must take enrollment declines into consideration.
The university won’t have a budget until after the Board of Trustees’ meeting in early March, but the process for putting it together began last quarter.
The Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC), made up of nine members chosen by DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban, held executive sessions in November. Their recommendation will then go to Esteban “for his review and endorsement,” university spokesperson Carol Hughes said.
A tuition pricing committee weighs in on fees and financial aid, and the Offices of Academic Affairs, the president and the executive vice president gives budget presentations to the SRAC, according to a Newsline article.
“If he approves, the budget proposal would go to the finance committee of the Board of Trustees for its endorsement,” Hughes said. “This would occur either at the December 2019 meeting or the February 2020 meeting.”
Assuming the finance committee approves, the budget would then go to the full Board of Trustees for final approval.
“If the board ratifies, we would communicate the particulars of the budget to the entire university community immediately thereafter,” Hughes said.
Hughes declined to provide members of the SRAC for interviews.
“It’s a bit premature to discuss at this point since the budget process has just begun and we don’t have a budget for next fiscal year, and won’t until board of trustees approves it in March 2020,” Hughes wrote in an email in November.
“For the 2020-21 budget, the [Board of Trustees’] finance committee asked the university to set a budget that is based on conservative enrollment projections and moderate tuition pricing increases,” said Jeff Bethke, DePaul’s Chief Financial Officer and chair of the SRAC, in a Newsline article.
Since a peak in 2010, DePaul’s population has declined by 3,334 students, according to a PowerPoint presentation by the provost and vice president of the university on Sept. 20.
Declining birth rates in the 2000s are a general concern for higher education. By 2026, Esteban said during his State of the University address in October, there will be a sharp decline in 18-year-olds. And of the 18-year-olds, less are attending universities, with a projected 18 percent decline in Illinois high school graduates by 2029.
Although enrollment in higher education nationally is declining at about 4 percent, Illinois is seeing a decline of nearly 17 percent. DePaul has seen a roughly 12 percent decline since 2011, Bethke said during a town hall meeting in September.
Nathan Grawe, an expert in demographics trends at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, said a combination of low fertility rates and immigration and interstate migration patterns will affect most universities, with the exception of highly competitive colleges.
Less competitive schools tend to draw their enrollment from the regional population, such as DePaul, which has an acceptance rate of about 70 percent.
Schools could turn their recruitment efforts toward regions that are seeing growth, like the Southwest, Grawe said.
At the October town hall meeting, Interim Provost Salma Ghanem said that because many of DePaul’s students are from out-of-state, specifically Texas and California, the university has increased marketing initiatives in those areas, as well as hiring on-the-ground recruiters in those states.
However, he also said recruitment shouldn’t be universities’ primary response to increasing or maintaining their enrollments; they should also make a strong effort to retain the students they already have.
“We need to come up with new ways of running our enterprises,” Grawe told The DePaulia.
This includes serving underrepresented groups through additional resources, changing curriculums to make them more relevant to students’ interests and helping create a sense of belonging.
DePaul has been focusing on increasing what officials call student affinity, which is essentially school spirit.
Ghanem said at the time that the university is “trying to be purposeful” about engagement, saying that both enrollment and retention happen at the student and professor level as much as it does at the administrative level.
The university also has several new academic programs in the works, including the new Grace School of Applied Diplomacy and programs focusing on health care, such as speech language pathology and occupational therapy, Ghanem said during the town hall.
Grawe also mentioned provisional acceptances as a way to potentially increase enrollment.
DePaul has a partnership with City Colleges of Chicago, called the DePaul Harold Washington Academy, in which participants who complete their associate’s degrees at Harold Washington College will be offered admission to DePaul at the end of the program, according to the 2019 President’s Report.
Jules • Jan 17, 2020 at 9:05 am
I think DePaul does need to work on its perceived value. For example, the School of Computing is under-rated and under-publicized. With a strong faculty, it offers an amazing variety of challenging majors and is nimble in adding coursework/majors in response to market demand. Through DePaul, I know of students who have landed internships at major companies and organizations and have continued these successes into their careers. It seems that the marketing is uncoordinated and/or underdeveloped across the different colleges within DePaul. I may read here and there about a finance alum or a film alum, but there are lots of individual and departmental success stories that could in aggregate give more tangible meaning to the “DePaul: Here We Do” message, which is really a perfect, defining message for the university. It just gets weighed down as DePaul tries to be all things to all people.
Additionally, how can DePaul attract more students from different regions of the country when it has such poorly developed campus life? We hear continuously about disappointed freshman, who feel that the campus is a ghost town with an occasional cookie-decorating activity thrown in. After freshman year, students are largely cast asunder into the city at large, having to rent an apartment at least two L stops from the unaffordable campus neighborhood, running into other DePaul students if they are lucky. Other urban universities have managed to offer more housing than DePaul does.What kind of experience is DePaul offering out-of-state students? How to deal with a crappy, random apartment far afield? An L pass and continuous commuting? What is the retention rate for out-of-state students?
Deke • Jan 15, 2020 at 4:57 pm
It is difficult to draw conclusions from the numbers cited in the article. The article states Illinois is seeing a decline in enrollment of nearly 17%. But over what period of time? Same for the national figure of a 4% decline –over what period of time? The article reports DePaul has seen a decline in enrollment of 12% since 2011. But from the facts given, it is impossible to tell whether that rate is better or worse than the Illinois or national averages.
As much as it pains me to say it, I think there is a perception among some alumni (and now I am being statistically imprecise, I know) that DePaul’s prestige is declining. Student applications and enrollment will increase if a degree from DePaul is perceived to be “worth” more, or more prestigious, than a degree from other regional universities in an equivalent field. DePaul is in competition with a lot of other schools — and DePaul alumni are out there competing with graduates of a lot of other schools — and the way to win the competition (or at least not get clobbered) is to elevate the perceived value and prestige of a DePaul education. Yes, I know, other tangible and intangible factors come into play in choosing a school , but at the end of the day the value of the diploma counts for an awful lot. This is what the Board of Trustees needs to focus on. I hope they are.
Heather Stephens • Jan 14, 2020 at 10:22 pm
Advancement was dead last in the university’s climate survey. VP Dan Allen then formed a task force to identify the issues. Let me save them all some time. Climate is entirely dependent on good leadership and this case, bad leadership. And why does Allen bad mouth Esteban? Shameful.
Advancement • Jan 14, 2020 at 2:14 pm
Maybe once and for all Dr. Gabriel Esteban will look into the Advancement Department. Some shocking behavior and allegations. Human Resources refuses to do anything. DePaulia needs to investigate Dan Allen and those surrounding him.
Robert A. Matusiak • Jan 13, 2020 at 9:35 pm
First, thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
Being an alum, I am concerned about the enrollment and budgetary issues facing DePaul. It is in everyone’s best interest for the University to succeed, and to continue to attract new students, and offer an engaging and relevant curriculum.
I have a few questions and thoughts.
– Are prospective students who are offered admission but subsequently decline surveyed in order to determine why they chose not to attend DePaul?
– Are all programs reviewed for their relevance and growth potential? Might the school be trying to be too many things to too few people?
– Being somewhat “landlocked”, student housing must be a challenge. Yet I know that many schools are developing and offering improved housing as a recruiting tool. Is this a factor in the declining enrollment?
– It seems that while donations to DePaul are strong, they could be better. Is the donation messaging geared towards encouraging broader participation – even at lower amounts – from new grads, while ramping the ask up for grads further into their career?
– I love the alum events, but not everyone can easily get into the city. I would encourage more events around the Chicago suburbs, which might encourage more participation and result in a larger donating base.
– Are freshmen surveyed toward the end of their first year to see if the overall experience promised was delivered?
Sorry for all of the questions, but DePaul’s continued success is important to me, and certainly all of the alums.
Kind regards,
Robert A Matusiak BUS ‘75