Dive Brief:
- Troubles continue for Chicago State University, which this fall posted a 25% one-year enrollment decrease to just over 3,500 students — a more than 50% drop from 2010 numbers, according to Inside Higher Ed.
- Faculty and students question the leadership of the university’s board of trustees, which paid out more than $600,000 to oust former president Thomas Calhoun in September after just nine months in office.
- CSU’s financial and management troubles stem from ongoing political turmoil in the state legislature, which forced the university to operate without appropriations for months.
Dive Insight:
Many would suggest that Chicago State University’s standing as a predominantly black institution have made the school a target for potential merger or consolidation by forced financial starvation. Typically, legislators are inclined to make this case with persistent underfunding and criticism of poor performance metrics.
But two things may be able to save the institution and other schools like it. First is the notion that the federal government is now paying additional attention to how effective schools are in admitting and retaining poor students. Second, a federal lawsuit in Maryland filed by constituents of its four historically black colleges has exposed how a state can operate, even in the 21st century, a "separate but equal" system of higher education.