COD enrollment on road to recovery

It's not growing by leaps and bounds, but enrollment at the College of DuPage is making headway.

Officials reported Thursday that the number of students this fall at the Glen Ellyn college grew by 1.4 percent when compared to the mid-way point in the 2006 fall semester.

It doesn't seem significant, but it takes on a different light when considering the college lost a significant amount of students when it switched from quarters to semesters in 2005. Enrollment then dropped by more than 9 percent and, because that translates into tuition revenue, officials have fought ever since to reverse the trend.

"We're at 31,500 students," COD President Sunil Chand told trustees. "We've not seen that level since the conversion."

Actually, they're at an enrollment of 31,579 students when all individuals taking classes are counted. Last year at the same time, there were 31,140 students.

Early enrollment for fall classes this summer didn't look promising. As of June, it was showing a drop of 15 percent when compared to the same time last summer.

Even 10 days after classes started this fall, the numbers were significantly lower than they are now. On the 10th day, the total headcount was 28,361 students, a difference of 3,218 people, according to Harlan Schweer, director of research and planning.

One of the things the college did both to meet students' needs and to help enrollment in the past few years was add courses that didn't run the full 16-week semester. They have both 12- and eight-week courses. However, enrollment in those classes was not counted in the 10th-day reports submitted to the state and accounted for the difference, Chand explained.

According to the mid-term numbers, the number of students enrolled in credit classes this fall increased 1.9 percent, to 27,630 students from 27,109. When the total number of credit classes taken this fall is divided by 15, the number of hours needed to be considered a full-time student, the full-time equivalent enrollment is at 14,607 students. That's a 1.7 percent increase from 14,357 at the same time last fall, Schweer explained.