The New York Times recently ran a piece showing Northeastern Illinois University with a 17 percent graduation rate of full-time incoming freshmen in six years. This statistic alone is appalling, but the implications made are even more so.
This means that 17 out of every 100 incoming freshmen are going to graduate with their bachelor’s degree in six years, and the rest will take even longer to earn a degree. While it is understood that a good portion of Northeastern’s student body is comprised of returning adult students and part-time students with familial obligations, this still doesn’t account for this percentage as it relates to students coming from the Chicago Public School system.
This brings up questions regarding a university’s responsibility to decrease the time to degree for undergraduate programs. Does NEIU have a responsibility to have its full-time students graduate in four years like most institutions in the state, or does NEIU have a responsibility to provide cheap education that takes longer to complete?
As a state-owned institution, NEIU is responsible for providing reasonable time to degree for full-time students in addition to its mission of remaining the most affordable public institution in Illinois. This is a mission that NEIU takes seriously, but not seriously enough to produce results.
President Steinberg has been quoted as saying, “We are an institution of choice.” But most students who enroll full-time at NEIU choose to be able to graduate in four years and not six or more. How then does the university still have a depressing graduation rate despite their commitment to affordability?
This mission of affordability is, unfortunately, undermined by a paltry time to degree brought on by insufficient course offerings, insufficient faculty to accommodate for increased need for courses, and the rising administrative interest in beautification of the campus for the sake of upgraded student services.
Northeastern’s administration has repeatedly been reported in the Independent as having committed to various construction projects while issues of class size, course availability and faculty compensation traditionally have been placed on the back burner. It is clear to anyone that the responsibility of NEIU is to provide education at any reasonable cost first, while putting projects of beautification last.
The issue of faculty compensation has, at least for the time being, been resolved after a debilitating strike back in November of 2005. With the faculty having reached their goal of being compensated better, the university has neglected to address class size and increased class offerings in the curriculum.
This negligence on the part of the administration is indicative of the university’s focus on something other than educating its students. It is widely understood that the university takes measures to maintain the affordability of education, but at what cost must this remain so? Only one’s graduation can tell what the price of affordability really is.