First off, let me say that yeah, the nosedive in incoming freshman classes the last 2 years is alarming and we all know why it happened. But to put some perspective on the narrative of "closing dorms, nobody is going to Mizzou, sky is falling" etc, here are some other angles. We know about Mizzou's retention rate continuing to be very good. The people we can get to campus will stay, because they quickly figure out the supposed reasons to "avoid" Mizzou were all BS.
Other thing is, even after a 30% drop in incoming freshmen the last two years, Mizzou *still* has larger enrollment than all of the following public institutions:
Tennessee
Kentucky
Arkansas
LSU
Auburn
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
ku
K-State
Nebraska
neck and neck with Colorado
North Carolina
Virginia
VA Tech
Georgia Tech
and of course our pals at Missouri State
...to name a few.
When you look at our region, it was really Mizzou and the two Iowa schools - Iowa & Iowa State - that were showing the most explosive growth in recent years, directly attributable to students from the state of Illinois looking for affordable out of state options. ISU is still mushrooming like crazy and Iowa is still rising as well. But when you look to Mizzou's southeast, south, west, and northwest, Mizzou is still the largest institution around for many, many miles. Even if enrollment continues to dive for a few more years, several other major schools in our area show that you can still function as a major university even at what from a Mizzou perspective would be (gasp) "1999 level enrollment." We can make it through all this crap and come out OK.
Other thing is, even after a 30% drop in incoming freshmen the last two years, Mizzou *still* has larger enrollment than all of the following public institutions:
Tennessee
Kentucky
Arkansas
LSU
Auburn
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
ku
K-State
Nebraska
neck and neck with Colorado
North Carolina
Virginia
VA Tech
Georgia Tech
and of course our pals at Missouri State
...to name a few.
When you look at our region, it was really Mizzou and the two Iowa schools - Iowa & Iowa State - that were showing the most explosive growth in recent years, directly attributable to students from the state of Illinois looking for affordable out of state options. ISU is still mushrooming like crazy and Iowa is still rising as well. But when you look to Mizzou's southeast, south, west, and northwest, Mizzou is still the largest institution around for many, many miles. Even if enrollment continues to dive for a few more years, several other major schools in our area show that you can still function as a major university even at what from a Mizzou perspective would be (gasp) "1999 level enrollment." We can make it through all this crap and come out OK.
