"LQC": Lipstick on a pig, Part 3

On Thursday, September 25 and Friday, Oct 3, we wrote in this space about the formidable Victoria Valle, assistant vice Chancellor for enrollment management. We noted that Ms. Valle had been around the block a few times, having gotten a paycheck from perhaps 10 academic institutions. We also mentioned that Valle's big idea for recruiting students was to put out a full color brochure extolling the wonders of what she calls "Southern".

We said it was like "Putting Lipstick on a Pig".

The enrollment issues at SIUC are well known and no amount of money thrown at overpaid bureaucrats like Valle will make a difference. We noted the plagiarism scandal, the 6 interim and fired chancellors since 1999, a bizarre Marxist Dean in Communications who drove off a world class faculty, not to mention the events surrounding Cal Meyers and John Simon.

Well, Ms. Valle the chickens are coming home to roost. In today's
Southern Illinoisan Interim Chancellor Samuel Goldman said that "Spring enrollment numbers look weak". How weak are they?

"Preliminary numbers show decreases in nearly each of the university's colleges, with some of the losses totaling as high as 15%".

Some knowledgeable people are predicting a drop of 500 students this Spring semester and over 1,000 in the Fall. However, we're sure that the overpaid bureaucrat Victoria Valle and her posse will labor on with their misplaced and failed ideas.

At this point there is no other Illinois University predicting decreased enrollment, at least in public. Indeed, the University of Illinois is predicting even higher numbers as the slow economy takes hold.

This drop in enrollment might have a silver lining. Perhaps Interim Chancellor Samuel Goldman will decide to save a little money by axing Victoria Valle and her overpaid staff.

We can't do any worse than we're doing now.

LQC