At Western Illinois University's Assembly Aug. 22, university administrators told media in a post event Q & A they expected the Fall 2025 to top off around 5,100, but 10th day numbers released Friday came in slightly above that initial prediction.
Fall 2025 headcount for in-person, as well as online, at both Macomb and Quad Cities campuses, is 5,337 as of the Sept. 12 report. The Macomb campus welcomes 738 new students (freshman, transfer and graduate), while the Quad Cities campus is hosting 36 new students. Off campus numbers include 485 students (Macomb) and 63 (Quad Cities).
Overall, Macomb students attending solely in-person classes clock in at 2,800, with Quad Cities students attending in-person total 178. Students attending completely online, or taking a majority of their classes online, total 2,364.
'We are excited to welcome our new students to Western Illinois University, whether they are in Macomb, Moline or online,” said WIU President Kristi Mindrup in the 10th day press release. “Western is a great place to learn, live and grow, and our talented faculty and staff are ready to help our students achieve their goals.”
While enrollment has come in ahead of the original projections, the Fall 2025 enrollment is a little less than 1,000 compared to Fall 2024 10th day numbers.
Justin Schuch, vice president of student success, told media following the Aug. 22 University Assembly a few of the reasons for continued decreases in enrollment include population decline and resources. Schuch noted there are fewer high school graduates than in the past, while resources, student need and the cost of promoting, and running, the institution have increased.
'Our numbers from west central Illinois are more challenging as there are fewer students and there's more competition for these fewer students,' he told The Community News Brief in an interview Friday about this year's enrollment. 'We're still offering the Western Commitment scholarship to remain competitive, but we have made some adjustments to that program. However, some of our peer institutions have thrown a lot of money into their scholarship programs in the last 12 months, so there is a lot more competition in that respect.
'On the plus side, we are seeing more local students attending Western than ever before,' Schuch added.
'Even though there are fewer of them, we got a lot more this year. Our housing discount for local students helps keep them here and we spent more time at local events. We've been a lot more present locally.'
Approximately 80 new students from eight counties, including McDonough, in west central Illinois have enrolled this fall, according to the Fall 2025 Fact Book.
In addition to scholarship and other incentives, Schuch attributes the slight increase to the State of Illinois' contract with Re-Up, which is a company that makes direct calls to prospective students. WIU provided names to the company and they made the calls on Western's behalf, he explained. The University also used Motimatic, a company that reaches out to students who have paused their education for whatever reason. Western provided the names of Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) students and adult learners and Motimatic reached out to this population.
"We also for the first time purchased lists of adult learners, which helped bring in that 197 returning students who want to finish their degree," he pointed out. "Our sophomore-to-junior retention also increased a bit, which helped push us past that 5,100 mark. While we've made some adjustments to our scholarship programs, they're still competitive. Students continue to tell us they're choosing WIU for the strength of our programs and affordability. That's who we are."
International Student Enrollment For the past few years, Western's international student enrollment saw gains; however, this fall, there has been a significant decline, particularly in graduate level international students, Schuch said.
"As I talk to my peers at other institutions, the general sense is that students are concerned about national events, as well as the costs," he noted. '"Under the leadership of Dr. Randy Glean, we saw a significant increase in international student enrollment a few years ago, and we still have a very strong program because of his work.
"We're going to continue to recruit in different regions of the world because we believe we offer a great academic experience for our international students and having a diverse student population benefits everyone," Schuch added.
Top Academic Programs
According to the 2025 Fact Book, the top majors selected by new freshmen this fall include law enforcement and justice administration (77), education (49), business programs (47), nursing (41), psychology (31), music and biology (26) and agriculture (24).
Top majors for new transfer student are business programs (82), law enforcement (61), general studies (54), education (48), agriculture (32), communication (23) and computer science and sociology/anthropology (16).
Top academic programs for graduate students are education (142), business programs (45), counselor ed/social work/college student personnel (38), health & wellness (25) and speech pathology (23).
Retention & Early Intervention
Fall 2024-to-Fall 2025 retention of new first-time full-time freshmen students decreased to 60.3 percent from 61.4 percent last year.
Of the 614 new freshmen who enrolled in Fall 2024, 370 returned this semester.
To ensure that students are successful and continue to stay enrolled, Schuch noted through some adjustments in staffing, former Honors College Dean and Health Sciences Professor Lorette Oden has been named the assistant vice president of student belonging and community outreach to help students remain engaged with the institution and to provide early intervention efforts.
'We're bringing back programs that allow us to reach out to more students. For example, we've enhanced our proactive and reactive chatbot, Rocky Bot, which is available 24/7/365.
It remains very popular; last year Rocky Bot had 22,000 text messages. It's a direct line for students to ask questions and receive support,' he shared. 'Besides students reaching out to RockyBot, the chat bot reaches out to students to inquire about four general areas: academics, finances, general well-being and engagement. We get that information and data so if a student is struggling or needs extra help, a person will follow-up to ensure they get what they need. We're reinvesting in that as we are able to intervene early when they need assistance.'
According to Schuch, first-year advising remains a priority, as does WIU's Connections early intervention program, which has been successful in helping student support staff reach students early on who need assistance.
"We also have the Academic Verification Roster is in place. We had 54 percent participation with faculty last year, but we're at 87 percent faculty reporting already this year. This roster makes sure that the students have started classes to ensure they're not only getting their financial aid, but also to make sure they do not fall behind right away," he discussed. "It's an immediate catch at the start of the semester and if someone isn't attending class, we can reach out to find out why. It could be as simple as they're not accessing an online class correctly, for example, or it could be they're feeling overwhelmed. Early intervention matters and it can make a real impact on our retention efforts."
Enrollment, Operating Budget & Fees Ketra Roselieb, vice president for budget and finance, told media after the August assembly, the 5,000-some headcount is a number the university planned for, and is a number that WIU's current budget supports.
"We will continue to work toward additional stability in our finances, and we'll continue to involve strategies that include advocacy for funding at the state level and look at opportunities for revenue generation outside of that," Roselieb pointed out at the post-assembly press interview.
"Although we planned for 5,100, we have a priority as an institution to support our students at that level and also find strategies to continue to create new access for students to move beyond 5,100."
According to Roselieb, the budget will be discussed further at the September Board of Trustees meeting, which is set for Sept. 26. In Friday's interview, Schuch explained that the institution did build a budget on 5,100, so anything over
