Indiana State University needs to adjust its budget to align with current resources, given downward enrollment trends, according to Provost Chris Olsen.
As part of that adjustment, curriculum changes are necessary, he says.
The reasons relate to the changing landscape of higher education and “a drastic reduction in the college-going rate and overall enrollment across the country,” Olsen stated.
At ISU, “Curriculum in all our majors that is leaner, provides more flexibility and is intentionally focused on the social and workforce needs of the 21st Century would make us much more distinctive among four-year public universities,” he wrote in an Oct. 28 newsletter.
The changes would make ISU more competitive and “help us to live within our budget without fundamentally changing who we are as a university,” he stated.
The changes would also help distinguish ISU “in the very competitive landscape of higher education,” he wrote in an Oct. 28 newsletter to faculty, which included a link to that vision for change drafted earlier this fall.
The university will conduct a series of college-level forums to discuss enrollment trends, challenges and opportunities at ISU. The Tribune-Star reached out to ISU for additional comment and clarification. Mark Alesia, university spokesman, issued the following statement: “This is a process we are engaged in right now, as we do every year. As our work progresses, the president and provost will be communicating with campus constituencies soon. We will have more information to share in due time,” Alesia stated.
That vision for curriculum revision would make academic majors “dramatically smaller [fewer credit hours] and less sequenced. Majors should not be more than 60 credit hours or sequenced over more than six semesters; the majority of majors should be 40-45 hours or less,” Olsen wrote on Sept. 1.
Smaller, less complicated majors should dramatically (as they have elsewhere) improve student retention and graduation rates, reduce faculty workload and burnout by simplifying the scheduling and teaching demands on the fewer regular faculty that all universities now have, he said.
It would also improve the university’s financial health by allowing ISU to schedule fewer of the most expensive courses it offers - upper-level electives and requirements.
It’s also important to get students into major-specific and hands-on classes in their first semester, Olsen stated. “Let students experience it and see if it’s for them,” he wrote.
Some of the credits freed up from smaller majors “could be invested by students into certificates, minors or second majors,” credentials desired by employers that would help students succeed in a variety of careers, Olsen wrote.
Finally, fewer hours in majors, combined with so many credits earned in high school through dual credit, “opens the possibility of a more unique core of classes or a defined certificate for students that might be considered ‘career’ or ‘professional’ readiness,” Olsen wrote.
This would be unique to ISU and could not be transferred in from outside, Olsen said.
‘These classes would be larger in size and generate some of the net revenue lost due to (high school) dual credit in (ISU) Foundational Studies,” he wrote.
Categories could include professional writing; information literacy; data analytics; group dynamics and diversity; digital literacy and management.
Smaller, less sequenced majors would give many more ISU students the chance to finish in four and possibly three years, he said.
“If we are creative in our approach to curriculum and pedagogy, we can help distinguish ISU in the ultra-competitive landscape we face. We simply must separate ourselves from other institutions, we cannot run out largely the same majors that everyone else has, and we need genuinely to commit to a student-centered approach to curriculum and scheduling,” Olsen wrote.
Contacted about the proposed changes, James Gustafson, ISU faculty senate chair, responded, “What the provost is asking for is for faculty to think through how well our programs meet the needs of our students, and if we can support the curriculum we have had in place with fewer faculty. That’s a healthy conversation, and something we do all the time anyway.” Faculty have “primary authority” over curriculum, Gustafson said. “We start those changes in our departments and colleges. They are suggesting some direction, but it is not something they can do top-down.”
Factors contributing to enrollment loses
The changing landscape of higher education stems from a combination of forces that include major demographic shifts, the Covid-19 pandemic, rapid expansion of distance degree and certificate programs, and new education and training opportunities outside of traditional universities, Olsen wrote.
There is also debate over the “value” of higher education that has focused greater attention on the cost and immediate, rather than long-term, impact of four-year degrees, Olsen stated.
The most immediate result of these issues has been a drastic reduction in the college- going rate and overall enrollment across the country.
In Indiana the college-going rate has fallen from 65% to 53% in four years, and it will be below 50% when the most recent numbers for 2021 and 2022 are calculated, Olsen stated.
Also, in the last two years, IU-Bloomington and Purdue-West Lafayette “have accelerated their race to enroll as many freshmen as possible.”
Purdue-West Lafayette had 9,354 freshmen this fall and a record total enrollment of 50,884 students, it reported. IU reported 9,736 freshmen and 47,005 total enrollment at the Bloomington campus.
In addition, in 2025 the demographic “cliff” that has been long discussed will be here, reducing the pool of traditional first-year students even more dramatically, Olsen said.
‘There are new and more intense challenges for regional public universities, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. In the last sixty years, at least, these are unprecedented,” Olsen stated.
One more important factor to consider is falling net tuition revenue caused by dual credit in high schools.
‘This has caused ISU [and all schools] to lose net tuition revenue at a rate faster than enrollment because we’ve lost tuition in areas - primarily Foundational Studies - where we traditionally returned the greatest net revenue.
It’s affecting all of higher education and is an accelerating issue that disrupts the funding model that universities have relied on since World War II,” Olsen said.
Another way to think about it: ISU is enrolling a significantly higher percentage of student credit hours (than ever before) in upper-level, advanced courses that are smaller on average and taught by tenure track and tenured faculty.
Changes to make ISU competitive, distinctive
“We need to do our part to make our offerings distinctive and relevant so that more students choose ISU rather than other options,” Olsen wrote.
He describes the approach as working toward a more “student-centered university.” While it doesn’t devalue faculty or scholarship, it puts greater emphasis on prioritizing the student experience from the standpoint of curriculum, teaching and career readiness. Another part of the changes relate to the Indiana State Advantage, which, in part, provides scholarships for experiential learning opportunities.