Joel Perdomo-Hernández, 23, a scholar at Northeastern Illinois University, would be the solely individual in his five-member household to graduate in December.
Belmont native Cragin works on the Costco tire retailer in the course of the day after which research at NEIU after ending the night time shift.
His mother and father immigrated from Guatemala; his father is a mechanic and his mom is a cleaner. It took Perdomo-Hernández 5 years to go to school, and she or he says her mother and father are over the moon.
“They’re like, ‘This is why we got here right here,’” Perdomo-Hernández mentioned.
With the primary enrollment improve in practically 15 years and new management beginning this summer time, NEIU is positioned to assist its nontraditional college students excel. Despite going through fiscal challenges like many universities throughout the nation, Katrina E. Bell-Jordan, the college’s eighth president, has a imaginative and prescient for academic justice.
“We should have a robust, vibrant and economically sound future,” Bell-Jordan mentioned. “Our job is to go in that route.”
The college within the North Park neighborhood has seen ups and downs in management and funds for years, however this fall it introduced an enrollment of 5,734 — a 4.2 p.c improve from the earlier yr. This is the primary improve in enrollment in practically 15 years, with a rise in freshman courses.
Bell-Jordan celebrated the rise in enrollment, crediting faculty admissions and placement groups for rising freshman class sizes. He mentioned NEIU’s robust educational programming — its social work and training tracks — has helped in retention efforts.
The progress of NEIU’s freshman physique is an efficient signal for the college, mentioned Robert M. Zemsky, a professor of training on the University of Pennsylvania. According to Zemsky, altering attitudes amongst highschool college students relating to the significance of upper training has led to declining enrollment and monetary stress on faculties and universities throughout the nation, particularly at small state faculties.
The development has been additional exacerbated by the pandemic.
“These are difficult instances for increased training, until you might be on the prime of the totem pole,” Zemsky mentioned.
NEIU caters to non-traditional college students, who could also be older, have dependents, work full time whereas attending faculty, or resume their research after a break. According to the college’s web site, roughly 48 p.c of its whole college students – undergraduate and graduate – are Hispanic. NEIU is the longest-running four-year public Hispanic-serving establishment within the Midwest, Bell-Jordan mentioned.
The new president mentioned she is happy with NEIU’s long-standing relationship with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities for a number of profitable partnerships, together with with the Telemundo Academy which supplies skilled improvement for college students concerned with careers in media and the United States Department of Agriculture offering analysis alternatives.
Vowing to strengthen and coalesce across the forms of college students served by NEIU, Bell-Jordan changed former President Gloria Gibson over the summer time.
NEIU determined to not renew Gibson’s contract in 2022, and in March 2023 its school handed a vote of no confidence towards the outgoing president amid tensions amongst school and management. Governor J.B. Pritzker additionally appointed 5 new board members in 2023.
Bell-Jordan has introduced institutional data to the NEIU worker position for practically 30 years, mentioned Chuck Ambrose, senior academic advisor at Husch Blackwell and writer of the e book “Colleges on the Brink: The Case for Financial Exigency.”
“Leadership actually issues, and (Bell-Jordan and the board) definitely have an important mission,” Ambrose mentioned. “When you might be in a extremely densely populated, extremely numerous area like Chicago, merely being an establishment dedicated to scholar success turns into a mechanism of socioeconomic mobility for the scholars served.”
Like Perdomo-Hernández, greater than 30 p.c of the coed physique is first technology, that means their mother and father or authorized guardians don’t have a school diploma.
“There is a job and a necessity… for establishments like Northeastern that consider in serving non-traditional college students, in being open to these college students, in creating wraparound applications and companies in order that these college students are profitable,” mentioned Michelle Morales, vp of the board of administrators.
The college is aware of adjusting office dynamics as a result of creation of instruments reminiscent of synthetic intelligence, mentioned J. Todd Phillips, chair of the college’s board of trustees. NEIU companions with on-line applications like Coursera Career Academy to supply certifications in laptop science and different applied sciences at diminished prices.
“(Students) should not solely advocating for themselves and constructing for their very own futures, however they’re additionally constructing for the futures of their households and their communities,” Phillips mentioned.
Although Bell-Jordan mentioned NEIU achieved a balanced price range for 2025 with out elevating tuition or charges, the price of tuition remains to be too excessive for some. Farzad Kosarnezhad, 41, an Iranian refugee who works as a road vendor at Jewel-Osco, research philosophy at NEIU.
He mentioned he needs to switch to Harry S. Truman College the place he’ll be capable of pay $500 for 3 credit, a couple of third of what he pays now. He receives no tuition assist from Jewel, he mentioned.
“I utilized, nevertheless it’s very aggressive,” Kosarnezhad mentioned.
But NEIU nonetheless faces headwinds. Despite some will increase in enrollment, the college has solely about half the variety of college students because it did in 2010. The college’s working income has mirrored this decline, regardless of profitable efforts to safe exterior funding.
NEIU is looking for elevated state appropriations that match the engagement and vitality on campus with a brand new president.
“We want the governor and everybody else in Springfield to understand how laborious these college students work and the sources they deserve,” Morales mentioned.
nsalzman@chicagotribune.com
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