By AP
Carbondale, IL – Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Chancellor Rita Cheng says efforts to increase an enrollment figure that has been steadily falling could take two to three years to show success. Cheng says the falling enrollment is not something they're going to turn around the in first year. The school's 2010 enrollment fell just under 350 students to 20,000 since 2009. With about 1,700 fewer female than male students, SIUC says it will work to recruit more females. The university's interim assistant provost in enrollment management John Nicklow says the school also wants to focus on keeping southern Illinois students from leaving the region for college.