Mars Hill's Future?

[Eagle74]

As we know, due to financial difficulties, Malone University just eliminated their football program.

With Mars Hill's enrollment continuing to decrease (down around 13% to 14% in the past few years) now at 1,277, could they be looking closely at cutting back on athletic programs, including dropping down to D3 or even worse, cutting out football completely? With a declining enrollment on the slide, and much needed tuition dollars and funding not coming in (a recent drop in millions of dollars), as with any school, unfortunately some changes, tough decisions, and possible cuts may need to be made very soon.

I wish them luck, and I hope they can quickly turn things around!

[Eagle74]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Well I was informed (thanks for the message!) that Mars Hill has a pretty decent endowment of around 50 million $$$ (far more than Tusculum and Newberry) and should weather the storm for a while. Still, some changes need to be made to turn around (or stop) their enrollment downward slide.

It was also brought to my attention (and I had no idea) that Tusculum's enrollment has dropped by a whopping 20% in the past 8 years, and based on their endowment, they are not in as good shape to weather potential pitfalls of declining tuition dollars and funding as many of the other SAC schools. So...best of luck Pioneers!!

[BearsLRU]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

I always find it interesting to see who donates the big $$$ to the small private colleges. I would bet Tusculum's rural setting, coupled with some outdated facilities has a lot to do with its decrease in enrollment, but you would think a college as old as them would have some strong alumni support to fix these issues, yet they have the lowest endowment out of all the SAC schools, including non-football.

[Rankin Hall]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Have you been to the Tusculum campus lately?

[Eagle74]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Have you been to the Tusculum campus lately?

Actually yes, and the new Meen Center (originally planned when the enrollment was larger) looks great. Ironically, Malone University's campus and new construction is just, if not more, impressive. Add in the fact that Malone's Endowment is much larger than Tusculum's, and they had to drop their football program, and it reinforces the statement that they (Tusculum) really need to address their declining enrollment situation as soon as possible.

[Dozsa2]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Check out the enrollments of these schools that somehow are a) still open and b) still have D2 football programs:

Urbana 417 students
Lake Erie 723 students

[Larold]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Check out the enrollments of these schools that somehow are a) still open and b) still have D2 football programs:

Urbana 417 students
Lake Erie 723 students

BL's classes are bigger than these schools enrollment. She should get a raise. It ain't fair!

[Ursidae]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

After reading this I decided to call Coach Tim and get the real deal. Besides I wanted to see if we could get in some trout fishing come spring. I didn't get him. I don't know if he isn't taking my calls or was too busy counting his recruiting class. He got a good bunch, some from way off including two fellers from Hawaii. Kicka pooka maka wah wahini. I decided to call one of the assistant coaches who used to hang out at a bar I occasionally frequented in Asheville until Coach Tim reminded him he was working at a Baptist school. I didn't get him either but some girl answered the phone (he ain't married that I know of) I asked her if Mars Hill was panicking because of the drop in enrollment. She said "Naaaw, they've got new ones coming in all the time too late for the headcount. They got these recruiters going out to all the high schools rounding up the ones that read and write real good and can do math and art and singin'. They are giving scholarships to the genuine Cherokee native American students just for signing up. They still get a lot of the Baptist boys that want to learn preachin' too." I thanked her and said goodbye confident that Mars Hill University, a proud SAC member and home of the free and land of the brave will persevere and prosper. Good luck Coach Tim, let's wet a hook this spring.

[canadarican]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

After reading this I decided to call Coach Tim and get the real deal. Besides I wanted to see if we could get in some trout fishing come spring. I didn't get him. I don't know if he isn't taking my calls or was too busy counting his recruiting class. He got a good bunch, some from way off including two fellers from Hawaii. Kicka pooka maka wah wahini. I decided to call one of the assistant coaches who used to hang out at a bar I occasionally frequented in Asheville until Coach Tim reminded him he was working at a Baptist school. I didn't get him either but some girl answered the phone (he ain't married that I know of) I asked her if Mars Hill was panicking because of the drop in enrollment. She said "Naaaw, they've got new ones coming in all the time too late for the headcount. They got these recruiters going out to all the high schools rounding up the ones that read and write real good and can do math and art and singin'. They are giving scholarships to the genuine Cherokee native American students just for signing up. They still get a lot of the Baptist boys that want to learn preachin' too." I thanked her and said goodbye confident that Mars Hill University, a proud SAC member and home of the free and land of the brave will persevere and prosper. Good luck Coach Tim, let's wet a hook this spring.

Literally spit my drink out laughing so hard at this :)

[Eagle74]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Check out the enrollments of these schools that somehow are a) still open and b) still have D2 football programs:

Urbana 417 students
Lake Erie 723 students

Lake Erie (enrollment 783) has an endowment nearly twice as large as Tusculum's, and Urbana's (UIUC) enrollment is a little over 1,600, and growing.

[Rod Fernandez]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Lake Erie (enrollment 783) has an endowment nearly twice as large as Tusculum's, and Urbana's (UIUC) enrollment is a little over 1,600, and growing.

Urbana College's enrollement is 392 according to this site( www.niche.com/colleges/urbana-university/) They do not list enrollement on the college site. I think you have listed the enrollement of University of Illinois at Urbana.

[Eagle74]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

You're correct, Urbana University in Ohio has 416 students enrolled on a full time basis, and 1,207 attend part time. Urbana is a branch of Franklin University which has an endowment of 60 million.

[RedFromMI]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

Urbana College's enrollement is 392 according to this site( www.niche.com/colleges/urbana-university/) They do not list enrollement on the college site. I think you have listed the enrollement of University of Illinois at Urbana.

Actually for Spring 2019, there are 31912 undergraduates at the flagship campus of University of Illinois (UIUC). Add 14344 grad students plus for a total of 982 professional students (probably med/law) for a total at that location of 47238, which is pretty typical for the Big 10...

http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/stuenr/class/enrsp19.htm

[Rankin Hall]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

What is your concern for Tusculum? I have been informed by a Tusculum official that their spring enrollment is over 1000 on the Greeneville campus.

[Eagle74]

Re: Mars Hill's Future?

What is your concern for Tusculum? I have been informed by a Tusculum official that their spring enrollment is over 1000 on the Greeneville campus.

I was informed through a message that their enrollment has been declining (down 20% in 8 years), and when you combine that with a low endowment...........well it's not a good combination for long term stability. Hopefully things are changing, because losing 20% of annual tuition revenue can be difficult for any private institution.