r/centralmich • u/J-Chapman • 15d ago
Community As enrollments plummet, communities like Mt. Pleasant sweat job losses from universities
https://www.themorningsun.com/2026/09/23/as-enrollments-plummet-michigan-communities-like-mt-pleasantsweat-job-losses-from-universities/4
u/bigdubsy 15d ago
I graduated a decade ago and have spent significant time in 5-6 college towns since then. It's remarkable to me how badly Mt. Pleasant bumbles it's chance to be a fantastic college town. I don't know anything about leadership there but the culture of hating students was crazy to me at the time and I didn't realize how weird it was until I was gone.
Of course the student population does contribute to this feeling as they struggle to find identity and community there. CMU is treated by most students as a transfer portal or a fallback option.
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u/JwubalubaDubdub 15d ago
Is Central too big to fail? Could this university really close one day?
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u/derekdevries 12d ago
Unfortunately most universities are not too big to fail - all of Michigan's public universities (and many private ones) are in a precarious economic situation right now.
They would be in trouble due to the decline in enrollment (driven by a declining share of college-age population) even if the current administration wasn't making good on its goal of eliminating public higher education (by withholding and canceling research funding, driving away international students, and restricting the amount students can take out in loans).
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u/PainInTheAssDean 15d ago
Of course not. This is such an uninformed take
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u/JwubalubaDubdub 15d ago
Of course not what? It’s not too big to fail? Or it won’t close one day? It’s a fathomable question to ask as Central is in a rural area with no nearby metro, is losing students to MSU as they accept 85% of their applicants, and is in a state with declining population and birth rates, not to mention Central has lost over half of its student population in a decade. I think there should be real concern there.
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u/LumberSauce 15d ago
Isn't enrollment finally going up again? That's what I read at least
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u/JwubalubaDubdub 15d ago
Fall 2025 enrollment was 14,171 students
Fall 2026 enrollment is 13,524 students
So it’s still declining
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u/QuickPea3259 15d ago
They like to act like it is by using data that supports the reality they are trying to create. Using phrases like, "enrollment decline is the best it's been in 15 years" or "studies show less people than ever are now not attending cmu!"
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u/pinetreesnsand 13d ago
Strange statement here - how is this a problem? Funding amount been level over 42 years and has kept up with inflation, fewer students to spend it on - yet it's a problem??
“We have about the same amount of funding, when you factor in inflation, as we did in 1983,” he said.
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u/derekdevries 12d ago
Funding has not kept up with inflation - that's why having the same level of state funding as they did in 1983 is a problem.
By way of just one example - in 1983, computers were barely in use on college campuses - and now every university has a massive IT infrastructure that accounts for 4%-5% of its total annual budget.
One of the big problems is that universities had to scale up for the enrollment boom that peaked in 2015 (CMU had over 25,000 students, for example), and with a declining pipeline from high schools due to population trends. That infrastructure/capacity to serve an extra 10k students in CMU's case doesn't disappear overnight - and most universities are struggling with how to downsize to fit the projections moving forward.
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u/Les_Goh1988 12d ago
The school gets plenty of funding. No one wants to waste money to get a worthless piece of paper.
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u/derekdevries 12d ago
It's true that fewer people today feel that a college education is important. I disagree and so does virtually every statistical indicator of success (from household income to longevity to unemployment rates).
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u/pinetreesnsand 12d ago
The article is quoted as saying specifically that funding HAS kept up with inflation.
Another big difference is that Administration is now bloated compared to what it was.
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u/derekdevries 12d ago
"Simultaneously, state funding has not kept pace with inflation.
“We have about the same amount of funding, when you factor in inflation, as we did in 1983,” he said."
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u/pinetreesnsand 11d ago
Exactly. You're misunderstanding what's being said there. It HAS kept pace even when you factor in inflation.
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u/derekdevries 11d ago
I'm not misunderstanding anything. It specifically says funding has not kept pace with inflation, and we're so far behind one has to go back to 1983 for an equivalent funding level (the value of the dollar has eroded as inflation rose 236% since then).
In 1983, CMU received $49m in state appropriations.
If their funding kept up with inflation, they would have received $133m in state appropriatons last year. However, in 2025, CMU received $97m in state appropriations. The dollar amount is numerically larger, but it's worth substantially less - equivalent to a -37% cut in funding. They are working with less money (adjusted for inflation) than before.
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u/the-bearded-omar 15d ago
When I was at CMU the city did everything in its power to keep the students away, so looks like that egg is finally starting to hatch.