Western Illinois University is one of many schools in a tough position, dealing with a state budget impasse that is keeping funding away, along with declining enrollment.
Traditionally, out-of-state students would pay around $100 more per credit hour than students who qualify for in-state tuition. That all changes starting next year, a move administrators hope can spark an influx of new students.
It's a change with potentially big rewards.
"The University has continued to operate very smoothly, but the state continues to throw us some challenges. We continue to monitor enrollment very closely," WIU Budget Director Matt Bierman said.
Bierman says that enrollment has declined by around 2,000 students over the past decade, and changes in how they market themselves to students needs to happen now.
"Families are leaving the State of Illinois so there`s less of a population to draw from within the state. We`ve seen more competition out of state as well as in-state, and students are looking out of state because of the financial crisis for higher education because they don`t want to stay here," Bierman said.
Starting in the Fall, every student in the country can qualify for in-state tuition at WIU at a rate of around $8,500 a year.
Bierman says this change can help turn the declining enrollment numbers around, while also preventing any other major staff changes during the budget impasse.
"We need to remain affordable to our students and we need to align our costs to our revenue. So, that`s going to require us to pull back a little bit, but we still think that`s the right thing to do for our students," Bierman said.
While they won't know any hard numbers until a few days into the next Fall semester, Bierman says they'll get an indication on if this move is working as early as March.
"As we put out our financial packages and scholarship award letters, we`ll start seeing students who had looked at us and and say `Ok, I`m going to give you a chance because you've lowered your rate,'" Bierman said.
He also adds that there's a financial risk to the University for offering in-state tuition to everyone, but it's a chance they have to take in order to get enrollment back on a positive track.