SIU dealing with lower than normal overall enrollment numbers | News

CARBONDALE, IL (KFVS)- It looks like Southern Illinois University's enrollment will be down again this fall.

But Chancellor Rita Cheng says the numbers don't tell the whole story.

She says administrators are concerned about the lower number of transfer students coming in this fall.

Cheng says a number of returning students with a past-due tuition balance haven't registered for fall semester yet either.

The chancellor says the school is seeing a huge number of science students this year, and online courses are up more than 30 percent.

"I've been saying overall enrollment will be down," said Cheng. "Our junior and senior classes are very small, but we're seeing a good solid freshman class and we think we'll be within 50 students of where we've been in previous years. 

The official numbers won't come out for a couple of weeks.

Chancellor Cheng says students can still register for the fall semester, so there will be some flux in numbers until the 10th day of classes.

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