Community colleges see enrollment spike during the recession

Professional sports teams, concert venues and opera houses may all be seeing drops in attendance as a result of the recession, but suburban community colleges are having the opposite problem.

They're running out of room.

With record enrollment numbers this spring semester, both Elgin Community College and McHenry County College are using creative strategies - from featuring more off-peak classes to adjusting scheduling by counting the number of available parking spaces - to accommodate as many students as possible.

With 11,345 students registered on the first day of the second semester, Elgin Community College's "first day" spring 2010 enrollment is the highest in college history, President David Sam said.

That's a 15.3 percent increase from spring 2009, and a 320 student increase from last fall.

Typically, Sam said, higher education institutions expect to see a slight enrollment drop each spring semester.

The economy has broken that theory.

The college, which has projected growth beyond its current space limits, last spring narrowly passed a $178 million referendum.

Bonds will be sold to build a $47.6 million health careers center; a $17.6 million expansion and redesign of its library; a $24.5 million renovation of the student resource center; and a new $15 million training facility for police, firefighters and emergency management technicians.

But in the meantime, space is tight, Sam said.

"Across the board, all areas there is more class space needed," he said.

In the midst of the recession, Sam credits ECC's flat tuition rates - which trustees last week voted to keep at $91 per credit hour for the fourth straight year - as one reason for growth.

"But the numbers are so big we cannot attribute it all to the economy," he said. "I would hope it's also because we have some outstanding faculty."

This semester, the college is featuring more weekend classes, as well as "odd combinations of times" to squeeze more students in.

That means more classes in the late afternoon, when campus is quietest, as well as offering as many classes as the college can during the day and on weekends.

Many adjunct professors have increased hours, Vice President Vince Pelletier said.

With nearly 6,800 students, McHenry County College has seen flat enrollment from the fall semester to spring semester, but a 26.7 percent increase from enrollment last fall.

"In a way, that's a misnomer," interim President Kathleen Plinske said, noting the college typically expects a drop in numbers come spring.

Like at ECC, McHenry's $80 per credit hour rate for in-district residents has held steady for the past several years.

For the first time, Plinske said, the college has been considering parking in terms of scheduling its classes, developing a mathematical model to predict enrollment, then shifting class times so the projected number of students taking classes at any given time is less than the number of spaces available in the parking lot.

"We're really careful, with these high demands. We're committed to keeping class sizes small," Plinske said.

Officials also re-striped the parking lot to create 100 new spaces.

For health and culinary management classes, MCC has partnered with Woodstock High School, hosting classes at the school when it's not being used otherwise.

"Overall, the college is becoming more efficient," she said. "We saw 30 percent increase in enrollment, it does not mean we have 30 percent more classes."

Other area colleges also reported surges in enrollment increases, though without as dire of space constraints. As of Friday, the College of Lake County in Grayslake had 18,436 students enrolled this semester, a 400-student increase from the fall and nearly 1,500 more students in the past calendar year.

"Last spring we were way up, too," spokeswoman Evelyn Schiele said. "This has all just been building with the economy."

Harper College in Palatine has 70 more students this spring, and an 11.1 percent increase from spring 2009.

Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove saw a slight dip from last semester to this semester, but a 10.2 percent enrollment increase from last spring.

The passage of $67 million worth of building referendums in 2002 and 2003, Waubonsee spokesman Jeff Noblitt said, "showed a great deal of foresight in anticipating this type of growth." Several new academic buildings on the main campus in Sugar Grove has already been completed.

A new campus in Plano is slated to open in January 2011.