The fourth and final candidate for SIU Carbondale Chancellor says enrollment challenges will continue on a national level, and each school must craft its own plan on how to counter a shrinking number of high school graduates.
Lawrence Schovanec is Provost and Senior Vice President at Texas Tech University. He says he’s impressed by SIUC’s work to turnaround its declining enrollment, but he says there are other hurdles on the horizon.
“We may have exhausted the capability to keep raising enrollment, so you’re going to have to raise tuition. So you’re going to have to look for enrollment in select areas – like international.”
On budget issues, Schovanec says administrators must be clear.
“You have to tell it like it is, but you also have to be totally transparent. You have to have enough knowledge of detail, that you can be involved in the strategic planning and make sure you have a coherent plan, and then you can articulate it.”
Schovanec is the fourth candidate to visit the Carbondale campus. A search committee will make its recommendation to President Randy Dunn, who will ultimately make the decision on a new campus leader, with approval from the Board of Trustees.
