Salukis hope success spurs enrollment

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- When Southern Illinois University senior Martin Obst visited home, neighbors used to snicker about what his life was like at the "party school," famous for Halloween street riots rather than for strong academics.\nNot anymore.\n"It's amazing what one thing can do for the reputation of a university," said Obst, 21, of Robinson, Ill.\nThat one thing was Southern Illinois' Cinderella-like success at the NCAA basketball tournament, when the Salukis emerged from a history of obscurity to play in the NCAA's Sweet Sixteen before losing to the University of Connecticut Friday.\nStudents hope that the school's time in the national spotlight will help not only counter its reputation as a party school but also boost its enrollment and help fundraising efforts, two things Southern Illinois needs even more than a winning athletic team.\n"I learned in P.R. class that the best advertising is word-of-mouth," said Carrie Titus, 21, of Arcola, Ill. "This has got to help us."\nAfter all, NCAA success helped Gonzaga University.\nThe private Jesuit school in Spokane, Wash., saw its applications jump 63 percent from 1999, right before the school's surprising NCAA success, to this year, when the Bulldogs lost in the first round of the tournament, said Dale Goodwin, a spokesman for the school of 5,200.\nThat translated into a 17 percent rise in enrollment, he said.\nGonzaga has also seen its bank account swell over the same period. The school raised $9.7 million from donors the year before its 1999 win, an amount that rose to $16.5 million two years later, only to drop off when the economy slumped, Goodwin said. The school is on track to better last year's $11 million in donations this year, he said.\n"There's no question, (the NCAA success) has been great for us," he said.\nBut whether Southern Illinois will see that kind of bounce is unclear. The Salukis' tournament success was the first piece of good news the beleaguered school had had in a long while.\nThe school, located in Illinois' poor rural south, started last year with a push to boost enrollment, which had been steadily falling.