Dean’s Message - Spring 2016 | HHS | SIU

Southern Illinois University

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Dean’s Message

Dean Wang

SIU is in the 10th month of the current 2016 fiscal year without a state budget or any state appropriations to the university. The lack of a state budget has placed extreme financial pressure on all higher education providers. Based on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed fiscal year 2017 budget, Illinois public universities will face a 20 percent cut based off fiscal year 2015 state appropriations. Given that approximately 50 percent of the SIU budget derives from state appropriations, this is an extremely difficult time for public universities in Illinois and for the students we serve.

There are two approaches to take when facing a financial crisis: reduce spending (cut budgets) and increase revenue. We are proud to share the College of Applied Sciences and Arts (CASA) has been “doing more with less” for the last several years, even while our enrollment has grown 4.97 percent from fall 2013 to fall 2015. Our CASA average retention rate of 80.89 percent has also held steady over several years. Given student enrollment reflects an important indicator of institutional health, and our CASA enrollment, retention, and graduation rates also correlate closely with other measures such as faculty and staff size, revenues, expenditures and assets -- all indicators identify CASA as a core foundational component of the overall health of SIU Carbondale.

Together, we are certain our CASA leaders, faculty, staff, and students can contribute even more to the success of our university. This is a critical time for increasing effective outreach and engagement strategies that can strengthen fall enrollment yields and fight summer melt. New opportunities will be available for faculty, staff, students, and alumni to share their personal SIU experiences and success stories with prospective students and their families. Showing care and encouragement can make a difference to prospects during the college selection process. I invite you all to help in achieving our SIU and CASA enrollment, retention, and graduation goals. We seek nothing less than a campus- and community-wide commitment to embracing prospective students, families, visitors, and each day, in all we do, give a warm welcome which can help interested students find their degree program fit and feel safe, secure, and at “home” in SIU. Thank you for sharing your time and experiences with prospects for our Saluki family.

Andy Wang, Ph.D.

Professor and Dean