By Valerie Velikaya
The college experienced a grueling nosedive in enrollment during the last five semesters; however, these meager rates won’t discourage its leaders from strategically planning for a successful future.
Last Feb., the Ledger reported a five percent decline in enrollment rates, totaling a headcount of 16,986.
The current rate pales in comparison to previous statistics, down at only three and a half percent – the college’s approximate figures won’t be revealed until the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting, set to take place on Thursday, Sept. 25. Dennis Day, vice president for student services, said that as the economy grows exponentially better, institutions hit a bump in the road in regards to student enrollment.
“In 2009, we had that big dip in the economy, and what happens when that happens is people go to community colleges because they’re out of jobs or they’re company is saying, ‘we’re going to close,’ so they go and find other things to do whether it’s a degree, certificate or just training,” said Day. “In 2009 to 2010, we had this huge jump – double-digit jump in enrollment … and that happened all over the country.”
As the economy progresses, less people are determined to attend institutions because they simply have jobs, he said.
“Typically, when the economy gets better, people are working and they’re not trying to get themselves trained or educated for a future employment,” said Trustee Treasurer David Lindstrom.
Currently, Johnson County’s unemployment rate is at four percent, which increases the likelihood of people pursuing jobs instead of an education.
“I think there’s always going to be cycles of enrollment,” said Day. “It just depends on how deep and how high some of them are. It takes significant events within the economy to make significant swings in enrollment.”
In the meantime, in order to stay ahead of the rapidly changing economy, the college has implemented the Strategic Planning Process; a year long initiative involving various ideas from the administration, faculty members, students as well as other community members.
“One of the big goals would be to improve student success by improving student satisfaction, retention, graduation [and] transfer rates. One of those tasks inside of that goal is to increase credit enrollment by developing a large range enrollment and recruitment plan,” said Day.
“We want to make sure that we’re being the most effective we can in offering the programs,” said Lindstrom.
This can also result in programs that don’t appeal to the economic consensus in getting cut. Such programs include food and beverage management, web developer and many others.
“You have to be strategic in what you cut so that you don’t cut potential enrollment and/or adjust savings from that area to another area that has the potential for growth,” said Day.
Overall, trustee Lindstrom believes the college is moving in the right path.
“I think we’re doing a pretty good job and we’re aware of some of the situations that are occurring out there that are causing us for concern for enrollment, and I think we’re doing better than many of the community colleges and even fact other institution of higher-learning as well.”
Contact Valerie Velikaya, managing editor, vvelikay@jccc.edu