Roosevelt president: Credit hours slipping at Schaumburg campus

Roosevelt University's president wants the school's Schaumburg campus to match the excitement and purposefulness of its Chicago locale.

School President Chuck Middleton pointed to declining enrollment in Schaumburg, where the number of fall credit hours has tumbled by 3,392 hours, or 17 percent, from 2002 to 2009.

In the same span, the Chicago campus has grown 46 percent, to 46,917 credit hours.

"Clearly we have a challenge for ourselves in Schaumburg to make its side of this equation look like what the Chicago side has come to look over the course of the last seven years," Middleton said.

Middleton spoke for about an hour Tuesday afternoon at the Schaumburg school, and is expected to make a similar speech Wednesday in Chicago.

Making the Schaumburg campus more comfortable to suburban students was one of the goals addressed in a report compiled by school officials focused on improving the Schaumburg school.

One suggestion is allowing Schaumburg students to finish their course load in Schaumburg or online without making them take classes in Chicago.

"It is time to stop having our students go between campuses involuntarily in order to complete their curriculum," Middleton said.

What would help is to develop a full-time faculty that would be exclusively at Schaumburg and have stronger ties to the campus, he said.

Middleton also said tuition costs will be re-examined and Chicago campus costs would differ from Schaumburg.

The school's full report on the improvements will be available online on Thursday.

Dressed in a lime-green dress shirt, the same shade as Roosevelt's new logo, Middleton said the school is better off today than it was five years ago. Ground is scheduled to be broken April 17 on a new building in Chicago.

Middleton said Roosevelt will be the second-tallest university in the country.

"By being on the horizon and off the skyline in a place where it will always have prominence, it will be a continuing and enduring statement about the importance of Roosevelt to this city, to this region and indeed to the country and beyond," Middleton said.

Middleton also pointed to the hires of 32 full-time faculty members before the fall 2009 semester, as well as the school's largest freshman class ever, 596 students, as examples of how well Roosevelt was doing.

Donations have also increased since 2008, from $2.1 million to $2.7 million in 2009.

Middleton stressed the new logo, a green R, that was unveiled earlier in the week. The branding replaces 18 various logos the school has used.