Bradley 2024 freshman enrollment

[yoda]

...Without consistency, it will probably never improve.

the only consistency I have observed over the past few years is that there's consistently NOBODY there
that ever answers the phone or returns calls. Even when I have approached someone at a game or an event
like Itoo or Red-White or down at the Civic Center - the response I always have gotten is either
"well that's not my job or my department", or
"I am retiring next month so someone else will be taking over" or
"I will have someone call you in the morning" (but, of course, nobody ever does)

[Bradley8792]

the only consistency I have observed over the past few years is that there's consistently NOBODY there
that ever answers the phone or returns calls. Even when I have approached someone at a game or an event
like Itoo or Red-White or down at the Civic Center - the response I always have gotten is either
"well that's not my job or my department", or
"I am retiring next month so someone else will be taking over" or
"I will have someone call you in the morning" (but, of course, nobody ever does)

My experience also. Everyone is just doing the minimal to get by before they find something better.

[molar50]

I believe enrollment will improve for next year. Ben Jedd was recently hired for this position. He and is wife are former Bradley graduates with children. She has family in Pekin. He knows the challenges for Bradley, but has the passion for this job.

[yoda]

Getting back to college freshman enrollment...

Now both Eureka College and ISU are announcing RECORD HIGH INCOMING FRESHMAN ENROLLMENT
I refuse to believe this is a major national problem for every school.
Schools need to stop blaming everyone else and get the job done.
Remember this attempt by PJS to shift blame to anyone but the responsible person?
"enrollment is down significantly, due to a variety of factors not necessarily unique to Bradley"

Do they even care about reporting newsworthy stories?..

yet another major news story, scandal where taxpayer dollars are ripped off in Peoria that isn't even hinted at in the local newspaper -
As has happened so many times, the city government handed out huge grants to multiple local organizations who vowed to work
to reduce inner city crime -
Guess what? $$ disappears, nothing got done, nobody held accountable, taxpayers foot the bill. Millions lost and we just move on to the next handout program?
We've heard this story before with Peoria Next, Firefly, the Pere Marquette block that sits mostly empty while $90 million got ripped off.
The city handed a $30 mil "loan" to the developer and never saw a dime of it paid back.
Now another $3 mil+ is going down the drain as Petersen goes bankrupt, but you can bet the honchos who ran the business into the ground have fat bank accounts and huge retirement plans. Government should not use taxpayer money to boost private ventures that make scammers rich and rob $$ needed to fix the potholes.

[bradleyfan124]

Now both Eureka College and ISU are announcing RECORD HIGH INCOMING FRESHMAN ENROLLMENT
I refuse to believe this is a major national problem for every school.
Schools need to stop blaming everyone else and get the job done.
Remember this attempt by PJS to shift blame to anyone but the responsible person?
"enrollment is down significantly, due to a variety of factors not necessarily unique to Bradley"





yet another major news story, scandal where taxpayer dollars are ripped off in Peoria that isn't even hinted at in the local newspaper -
As has happened so many times, the city government handed out huge grants to multiple local organizations who vowed to work
to reduce inner city crime -
Guess what? $$ disappears, nothing got done, nobody held accountable, taxpayers foot the bill. Millions lost and we just move on to the next handout program?
We've heard this story before with Peoria Next, Firefly, the Pere Marquette block that sits mostly empty while $90 million got ripped off.
The city handed a $30 mil "loan" to the developer and never saw a dime of it paid back.
Now another $3 mil+ is going down the drain as Petersen goes bankrupt, but you can bet the honchos who ran the business into the ground have fat bank accounts and huge retirement plans. Government should not use taxpayer money to boost private ventures that make scammers rich and rob $$ needed to fix the potholes.

When nobody is held accountable then the corrupt will keep corrupting. I blame part of the problem on the complacency of the people in Peoria. Last mayoral election I think we had a 22% turnout. Really!! That's horrible. We should have 92% turnout

[yoda]

In another major local news story that the PJStar doesn't breathe a single mention of....

Threedays ago, on Monday - the acting President of Bradley University, Jonathan Michel, issued a statement covering THREE MAJOR ISSUES
that have been mentioned in previous articles and which are the topics of interest in this thread.
(multiple other local news sites, WCBU, CIProud... do cover it)

-First, he said that "the school hopes to have a new president in place by the start of the NEXT SCHOOL YEAR."
So, contrary to previous statements that there should be a new President hired by January or February of 2025,
he's not even confident Bradley will have their new President hired by FALL of 2025, so I guess it could be even way later than that!

-Second, he addressed the incoming enrollment issue by saying "officials have not seen enrollment numbers for this year yet,
but they're anticipating they'll be similar to last year."

-Third, he announced that they essentially canned their Provost

I call BS on that lie! He's the President, the highest ranking administrative official of the University, and the ONLY REASON
he's even in that position is because of the horrible enrollment numbers generated by Dr. Standifird, and yet he claims he hasn't even seen anything on the enrollment numbers?
As I posted well over two months ago - Ray LaHood stated publicly that HE HAD SEEN the enrollment numbers and he projected
the final numbers once fall classes start, would be new freshman enrollment of 820-840.

Then on August 20, Bradley's own web site posted the numbers for new incoming enrollments and transfers, allowing a simple
calculation to show that new incoming freshman enrollment was 842.

Why the continued lying about the horribly low numbers? And why doesn't the local newspaper cover it at all or at least look into it?
Is it because they were in Standifird's back pocket the whole way and now when he created this disaster, they're corruptly covering for him,
like they did endlessly for Glasser? What's going on?
(btw- most already know, but all the text above in red are links to references)

[bradleyfan124]

In another major local news story that the PJStar doesn't breathe a single mention of....

Threedays ago, on Monday - the acting President of Bradley University, Jonathan Michel, issued a statement covering THREE MAJOR ISSUES
that have been mentioned in previous articles and which are the topics of interest in this thread.
(multiple other local news sites, WCBU, CIProud... do cover it)

-First, he said that "the school hopes to have a new president in place by the start of the NEXT SCHOOL YEAR."
So, contrary to previous statements that there should be a new President hired by January or February of 2025,
he's not even confident Bradley will have their new President hired by FALL of 2025, so I guess it could be even way later than that!

-Second, he addressed the incoming enrollment issue by saying "officials have not seen enrollment numbers for this year yet,
but they're anticipating they'll be similar to last year."

-Third, he announced that they essentially canned their Provost

I call BS on that lie! He's the President, the highest ranking administrative official of the University, and the ONLY REASON
he's even in that position is because of the horrible enrollment numbers generated by Dr. Standifird, and yet he claims he hasn't even seen anything on the enrollment numbers?
As I posted well over two months ago - Ray LaHood stated publicly that HE HAD SEEN the enrollment numbers and he projected
the final numbers once fall classes start, would be new freshman enrollment of 820-840.

Then on August 20, Bradley's own web site posted the numbers for new incoming enrollments and transfers, allowing a simple
calculation to show that new incoming freshman enrollment was 842.

Why the continued lying about the horribly low numbers? And why doesn't the local newspaper cover it at all or at least look into it?
Is it because they were in Standifird's back pocket the whole way and now when he created this disaster, they're corruptly covering for him,
like they did endlessly for Glasser? What's going on?

Some very good points

[Da Coach]

By the way, a lot of schools are using the excuse that enrollment is down all over at colleges.
But that is not true. Some schools are seeing surges in enrollment.
One year ago, Illinois State University reported their largest freshman enrollment in 36 years - https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2023/...ng-enrollment/
And this year they announced their freshman enrollment is the largest in the school's history! - https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2024/...sitys-history/

[ollienanyes]

In another major local news story that the PJStar doesn't breathe a single mention of....

Threedays ago, on Monday - the acting President of Bradley University, Jonathan Michel, issued a statement covering THREE MAJOR ISSUES
that have been mentioned in previous articles and which are the topics of interest in this thread.
(multiple other local news sites, WCBU, CIProud... do cover it)

-First, he said that "the school hopes to have a new president in place by the start of the NEXT SCHOOL YEAR."
So, contrary to previous statements that there should be a new President hired by January or February of 2025,
he's not even confident Bradley will have their new President hired by FALL of 2025, so I guess it could be even way later than that!

-Second, he addressed the incoming enrollment issue by saying "officials have not seen enrollment numbers for this year yet,
but they're anticipating they'll be similar to last year."

-Third, he announced that they essentially canned their Provost

I call BS on that lie! He's the President, the highest ranking administrative official of the University, and the ONLY REASON
he's even in that position is because of the horrible enrollment numbers generated by Dr. Standifird, and yet he claims he hasn't even seen anything on the enrollment numbers?
As I posted well over two months ago - Ray LaHood stated publicly that HE HAD SEEN the enrollment numbers and he projected
the final numbers once fall classes start, would be new freshman enrollment of 820-840.

Then on August 20, Bradley's own web site posted the numbers for new incoming enrollments and transfers, allowing a simple
calculation to show that new incoming freshman enrollment was 842.

Why the continued lying about the horribly low numbers? And why doesn't the local newspaper cover it at all or at least look into it?
Is it because they were in Standifird's back pocket the whole way and now when he created this disaster, they're corruptly covering for him,
like they did endlessly for Glasser? What's going on?
(btw- most already know, but all the text above in red are links to references)

About fall freshman enrollment numbers: what people usually go by are the "week 3 numbers", which are a function of the deposits and how many are still enrolled in classes after 3 weeks. So, those numbers are still out.

[yoda]

About fall freshman enrollment numbers: what people usually go by are the "week 3 numbers", which are a function of the deposits and how many are still enrolled in classes after 3 weeks. So, those numbers are still out.

I know that but it's just an alibi...
They have seen the numbers as they are, they know who is on campus, who is enrolled and who are attending classes, AND they know the numbers & the Board has been actively discussing this exact topic for many months.
So to say they have never even seen the numbers is not true, in my opinion.

also, in that first article above,
"Illinois Central College announced in August an increase in enrollment for the fall semester.
The community college had 8,008 students enrolled, a 5.1% increase from the previous year."

up 5.1% is a significant jump and many of those people will be looking for a 4-year school to transfer to so Bradley ought to be vigorously marketing some special deals to the ones that are the best candidates...

[bradleyfan124]

I know that but it's just an alibi...
They have seen the numbers as they are, they know who is on campus, who is enrolled and who are attending classes, AND they know the numbers & the Board has been actively discussing this exact topic for many months.
So to say they have never even seen the numbers is not true, in my opinion.

also, in that first article above,
"Illinois Central College announced in August an increase in enrollment for the fall semester.
The community college had 8,008 students enrolled, a 5.1% increase from the previous year."

up 5.1% is a significant jump and many of those people will be looking for a 4-year school to transfer to so Bradley ought to be vigorously marketing some special deals to the ones that are the best candidates...

I have heard that is the biggest problem, lack of marketing. They used to go out to the high schools and recruit but dont anymore. They wait for the students come to them. Anyway that is what was told to me by a Marketing professor

[yoda]

Even worse
they are cutting their own throats by eliminating departments like physics which needs to be strong in order to draw the applicants interested in engineering
Some of the recent decisions dating back to the Glasser era have doomed Bradley for years to come.
Promoting “Women and Gender Studies” degrees sounds trendy but it drives away more than it attracts.
IMG_3053.png

[bradleybravesfan]

Bradley has been pretty quiet regarding their freshmen enrollment numbers, probably because they are extremely disappointing.
However, they finally posted a "cryptic" accounting of freshman enrollment on their website by saying:
"First-year Student enrollment: 1027, Transfer enrollment: 185"

Thus, the freshman enrollment is 842.
Recall that when freshman enrollment plummeted under Glasser, Roberts quickly got the freshman enrollment back up over 1,250,
and it stayed there his entire tenure.... and it wasn't because BU lowered academic standards - they actually had the highest GPA's and SAT scores ever ( https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...ge3#post465087 )
This is 100% on Standifird.

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/26004-bradley-freshman-enrollment

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/26004-bradley-freshman-enrollment/page3#post465087

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...ge3#post455115

Those numbers from the Bradley website aren't accurate. The Bradley QuickFacts page is inaccurate and the specific numbers date back to early 2021, meaning the numbers were for the Class of 2020 which did have a class of over 1000 freshmen and 185 new transfer students. Subtracting the numbers is also inaccurate since they always classify transfer students as separate from freshmen.

This year's enrollment numbers were announced in a faculty meeting the other day. Total enrollment in 2023 was 5215. Total in 2024 is 4777, a decrease of 8.4%. It has not dipped below 5000 in recent years.

Undergraduate enrollment is down 7.3% from 3883 to 3600. Freshman enrollment in 2023 was 833, this year it is 811. Transfer students are down slightly from 133 to 120.

Grad enrollment which includes on-campus and online declined from 1332 to 1177. On-campus grad students declined from 183 to 86, from that subset, international students take up a big chunk of the on-campus graduate population, declining from 137 to 43. Down 53% and 68% respectively. Overall, grim picture for enrollment this year.

[NashvilleBU]

The problem is easy to see. BU is super expensive - 52k a year for full room/board and no scholarships. Most starting salaries are around 40-80k a year…the ROI is tough to convince anymore. If you’re not getting a high business or engineering job (or going to graduate, law or medical school) after college, it just doesn’t make much sense IMO.

I graduated in 2015 and it was still expensive and it was around 25-30k a year but was helpful with scholarships and other academic aid.