Southeast, SIU still offer great values

Southern Illinois University-Carbondale has announced what looks like a bold step in the face of tough economic times and budget cutting throughout state government. SIU plans to hire 28 new full-time faculty members by the time school starts next fall.

The announcement of the plan to hire 12 senior or full professors and 16 tenure-track assistant professors contrasts in particular with the cost-cutting mode at Southeast Missouri State University, which has lopped $5.26 million from its $77 million budget due to reduced state funding. SIU's budget is $423 million.

SIU is a large regional university that serves all of the southern tip of Illinois, a geographic area that is large in size but low in population. The university attracts hundreds of graduate students from other states, including Missouri, who take advantage of the school's many professional graduate programs.

The Carbondale, Ill.-based university's enrollment this year is 21,872 students, and there are 1,371 full-time faculty members. Southeast's growing enrollment reached 9,534 this fall, with 405 full-time faculty members.

Southeast also is a regional university concentrating on bachelor's and master's programs in a largely agricultural area of Missouri that also is sparsely populated.

As enrollment has grown, Southeast also has added staff. The 405 full-time faculty positions are up five from a year ago. Recent budget cuts call for combining some positions. University officials do not envision adding any full-time positions in the next year. Early forecasts indicate the university may face even more reductions in state funding.

So how is SIU able to make such a big move on hiring? SIU's interim provost and vice chancellor, Kyle Perkins says that during his 27-year tenure at SIU, he can remember only one other time in which the university recruited more than one senior professor in a single academic year.

The answer is research and grants. Most of the 28 new positions will be in areas ranging from wildlife research to engineering -- areas where grant money is expected to be most plentiful.

In addition to relying on outside sources of funding for the additional faculty members, SIU officials also expect the faculty additions will improve SIU's academic stature. Provost Perkins said the school hopes to be included among the top 75 research universities by 2019.

Nearly all institutions of higher learning rely on grants to some extent. Southeast has received millions of dollars in grants and actively pursues additional funding from grant sources. Most of Southeast's grants, however, are in the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars range, while large schools like SIU frequently obtain multimillion-dollar grants.

SIU's strategy comes at a cost. Tuition there is going up nearly $600 in the next academic year to $4,245. With fees, the total cost will climb to $5,500 a year for a students taking 30 credit hours. At Southeast, recent increases bring tuition to $3,924. With fees, the total cost is $4,215.

For what they offer, both schools continue to provide good value for a high-quality education.