Close it now: Chicago State University has just 86 freshmen

Chicago State University is nothing but a jobs program, the college on occasion properly educates someone. Only 11 percent of its students graduate in six years.

Amazingly, Chicago State is a NCAA Division I sports school.

This college needs to close. Illinois has many other state universities that offer far better educational opportunities.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago State University — still reeling from a scandal in which its president got $600,000 in severance to leave the South Side school after only nine months on the job — has only 86 total students in its freshman class this fall.

That's less than a tenth of the size of its freshman class five years ago, when 1,058 first-year students enrolled, university figures show. And the 86 freshmen now on campus include part-time and full-time students, a university spokeswoman said.

Even with 211 students transferring in, the public university;s total enrollment has dropped to 3,578 — 2,352 of them undergrads, and 1,226 in graduate programs.

The number of students attending the school at 95th and King Drive has been dwindling for years. Two years ago, the school had 5,211 students and five years ago it had 6,882 students.

Essentially-bankrupt Illinois needs to contract--just as its population is contracting. CSU is a great place to start the slashing.

Throwing taxpayer money away at Chicago State was a longtime project of former Illinois state Senate president Emil Jones, Jr. who was a mentor for Barack Obama. There's an arena at CSU, the Emil and Patricia A. Jones Convocation Center, which seats up to 6,000--currently the school has only 3,600 students.