{"id":124,"date":"2017-10-03T00:15:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/?p=124"},"modified":"2017-10-03T00:15:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:15:49","slug":"jon-jonakin-letter-to-the-editor-re-enrollment-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/2017\/10\/03\/jon-jonakin-letter-to-the-editor-re-enrollment-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Jonakin letter to the editor re: enrollment numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

TTU enrollment numbers manipulated<\/h1>\n
Posted Wednesday, <\/span>September 27, 2017<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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Many of us have come to expect carefully manipulated and self-aggrandizing messaging or hype from the current TTU administration.\u00a0The latest hype involves enrollment numbers.<\/p>\n

Recall that the fiscal crisis at TTU that resulted in the firing of many people emerged from a combination of factors: sharp declines in student enrollment in recent years, administrative mismanagement of scholarship funds and huge increases in high echelon administrative salaries, among others.<\/p>\n

Greater student enrollment would thus address one area of fiscal concern.\u00a0On Sept. 17, the Herald-Citizen published an article passed along by the TTU administration that was headlined: \u2018TTU Reports Increase In Enrollment\u2019. \u00a0See it here: http:\/\/herald-citizen.com\/stories\/ttu-reports-small-increase-in-enrollment,23267.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the article hyped the fact that TTU had the \u201clargest freshman class in recent years\u201d which was still small relative to more distant years.\u00a0 Beneath the headlines and hype one read that the overall enrollment increase was \u201cslight.”\u00a0\u00a0Indeed it was since there are only 10 more students enrolled this year than last.<\/p>\n

Significantly, this was the year \u2014 two years on from the implementation of the Tennessee Promise program which assured free access to Tennessee\u2019s two year community colleges \u2014 wherein one would have expected marked increases in junior and senior class enrollments at four year universities like TTU.\u00a0 This did not happen, at least at TTU, where, instead, one could infer they fell.<\/p>\n

The tiny enrollment increase of course will do nothing to diminish TTU\u2019s ongoing fiscal problems and these numbers should be deeply disturbing to TTU administrators.<\/p>\n

With the exceptions of the College of Engineering and the graduate school, virtually every other college of the university registered declined in enrollment.\u00a0The near freeze on the hiring of tenure track professors \u2014 a sure sign of fiscal crisis \u2014 has likely contributed to enrollment decline as fewer classes can be offered in some cases.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the recent increases in hires of low paid adjuncts and instructors will affect the quality of teaching and will also likely contribute to enrollment decline in coming years.<\/p>\n

Hyping increases in freshman class enrollment while suppressing acknowledgement of the declines elsewhere in the university indicate that the current administration remains in deep denial regarding TTU\u2019s fiscal prospects.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One can only hope that the newly established TTU governing board is paying attention and does not permit itself to believe all the hype coming from the Oldham administration.<\/p>\n

Jon Jonakin<\/p>\n

Cookeville<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TTU enrollment numbers manipulated Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2017 Many of us have come to expect carefully manipulated and self-aggrandizing messaging or hype from the current TTU administration.\u00a0The latest hype involves enrollment numbers. Recall that the fiscal crisis at TTU that resulted in the firing of many people emerged from a combination of factors: sharp … Continue reading Jon Jonakin letter to the editor re: enrollment numbers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}