PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2022

“There continues to be a strong need, in some fields, for a college degree,” Wright says. “That said, Eureka College has made dramatic curricular changes to ensure we are focusing on students’ mastery of key, transferable skills that reflect employer needs and are helping students to better connect the dots between college, career and life skills.” To that end, the school is offering more f lexible degree-completion options, including three-year programs Jamel Wright is president of Eureka College, where the most famous graduate is former President Ronald Reagan and remote-only curricula. Meanwhile, the school is emphasizing financial responsibility. “Eureka Col lege has also been intentional in developing initiatives and providing resources around financial literacy to better educate families about the financial aid process, the difference betweengrants and loans, aswell as loan repayment and budgeting,” Wright said. “Most important is Eureka College’s message encouraging students to only accept the minimum loan amount needed for their education.” EUREKA COLLEGE IS COMMITTED TO ‘BETTER PRICING MODELS’

from $22 million to $32 million over the past five years. Moving forward, ICC is further seeking to meet student needs at their most basic levels, including bolstering on-site daycare for student-parents. The school also assists with finances. In-district tuition — ICC serves all or parts of the counties of Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Bureau, Logan, Marshall, Livingston, McLean, Stark and Mason) is $155 per credit hour. Meantime, non-credit programs that offer certification in vocational training are flourishing. “They need something past high school,” said Kim Armstrong, ICC’s vice president for marketing and institutional advancement. Some of the programs offer earn-while-you learn stipends, with ICC adding 1,200 students there in the past two years. “We can’t train welders fast enough,” said Armstrong. EUREKA COLLEGE Eying national enrollment declines, Eureka College has been pushing for a better bang-for-the-buck experience, said school President Jamel Wright. The approach has multiple prongs. One involves understanding that the threat of college debt looms large among would-be students. “Consistent with national data, we have seen more low-income and first-generation students deciding to

take gap years or to forego college altogether,” Wright said. A key initiative has been Eureka Promise, a tuition-free program for low-income students living in Illinois. “We are the only private college in the state of Illinois to offer such a program,” Wright said. “Eureka Promise is one example of our commitment to explore and implement better pricing models that better meet the needs of our students.” Meantime, the school has frozen tuition for incoming students, so their year-to-year cost is more predictable. To cover its costs, the college has increased its focus on non-tuition revenue, such as grants. Meanwhile, Eureka’s endowment has grown from $20 million in 2013 to almost $38 million today. The school declined to disclose its recent enrollment figures, though U.S News reported that the fall 2020 figure was 511. This fall, the school is expecting a 20 percent boost in freshman enrollment, Wright said. The college’s enrollment dropped from 567 in 2018 to 476 in 2021. School officials expect more than 500 students this fall, with a 20% boost in freshman enrollment alone. One major push has involved what Wright calls the “value proposition of earning a college degree,” with the school reaching out to employers to learn their needs for new hires.

Phil Luciano is a senior writer/columnist for Peoria Magazine and content contributor to public television station WTVP

28 AUGUST 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE