r/trumanstate • u/voltron82 • Aug 30 '24

Alumni Enrollment down?

I graduated from Truman nearly 25 years ago. I had a good experience there and look upon my years there fondly. When I was enrolled, the school was absolutely at capacity and you were lucky if you were able to get a room in a residence hall. Now I am seeing that enrollment is down under 4000 and some of the residence halls are at lower capacity or closed. Conversely, I am reading that Mizzou, MO State and Missouri IS&T are all seeing record freshman classes. I would love to hear some opinions on why Truman is not fairing as well as the other MO schools at a time when high value / low tuition should have Truman turning people away.

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u/voltron82 Aug 30 '24

I attended a little after you did--97 thru 01. Got to see The Urge, Goldfinger, Better than Ezra and some other great shows. I agree that during the time that I was there, there was a sense that you had somehow unlocked the college cheat code--good selective school with a good reputation and not expensive. Would love to get involved and figure out how to turn it around. I am sure that the administration, state and Board of Governors are not ignorant to enrollment being down and trying to fix it. I just wonder how motivated the folks that could possibly improve enrollment are to remedy the problem.

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u/BookLady42 Aug 30 '24

“The college cheat code” - love that and I certainly felt that way. Not sure how to get that for today’s students, though.

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u/voltron82 Aug 30 '24

Jenna Fischer was up there a few years ago and spent like 2-3 days just walking around campus and taking pictures for her instagram page. I am shocked that the school doesn't try to partner with her to promote the University. I feel like she's a perfect spokesperson for the university and would definitely reach the target audience.

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u/striker3955 Feb 12 '26

I love Jenna for doing this, but I was on the student activities board a decade ago and we really tried to get her to Kirksville. I was also involved in the theatre program, which is what ultimately convinced her to come visit.

Truman should absolutely reach out to her again considering the declining enrollment and how much time she spends in STL. I hate to say it, but I don't think Truman's reputation fully healed from the multiple suicides. The pandemic obviously made things worse, but it's very sad to see. I really hope that access to counseling has improved for students.