DesMoines Register.com
09-22-06
Community college enrollment climbs
The reason: Students like convenience and the lower cost.
The impact: Cooperation among colleges has put 100 courses online.
By LYNN CAMPBELL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
A record 85,715 students are enrolled this fall at Iowa's 15 community colleges,
up 3 percent from last year and 25 percent from five years ago, according to a
Des Moines Register survey.
The numbers continue a trend that began in 1985. Officials attribute the growth to
affordability of the colleges, new programs, online courses and more high school
students taking college classes.
"More students are enjoying the convenience of taking college courses online,"
said Julie Carlson, dean of enrollment management at Iowa Lakes Community
College. "High school students continue to enroll in college credit courses
through our secondary programs at a greater number each term."
For Dylan Heuer, 17, a senior at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines,
community college means a head start. He earned credit from Des Moines Area
Community College for his desktop publishing and multimedia classes last year,
and this year is taking a graphic design course at Central Campus that also
qualifies for college credit.
"It's good to get ready for college," said Heuer, who hopes to attend the
Rochester Institute of Technology in New York next year. "I went to visit the
school this summer and asked them if they would accept my college credits.
They said they would accept it, so now I already have some credits."
Eleven of the state's 15 public, two-year colleges reported an increase in fall
2006 enrollment, which is recorded on the 10th day of classes. Northwest Iowa
Community College in Sheldon saw the largest percentage increase, 13.1
percent. The six-campus Des Moines Area Community College recorded the
largest raw number jump, 808 students.
Students under 17 are the fastest-growing segment of community college
students. Their numbers doubled, from 5,230 to 10,593, in the last five years,
according to the education department.
Iowa's numbers buck a national trend of flat enrollment or declines after several
years of dramatic growth.
"It fluctuates historically with what's going on in the economy," said Norma Kent
of the American Association of Community Colleges. "When the economy is
questionable, enrollments go up. Tuition has something to do with it."
Key to Iowa's growth are high school students like Heuer who are enrolled in
college-level courses and qualify for college credit. Their numbers grew 46.5
percent - from 15,633 to 22,905 - between 2002 and 2005, according to the Iowa
Department of Education. They made up 19 percent of all community college
students.
"It's nice. It's free credits," said Manfred Strait, 17, a Roosevelt senior who
earned credit from an advanced Spanish class last year and was dually enrolled
at DMACC.
Online courses have also driven enrollment growth.
A record 9,500 students take online courses this fall offered by seven community
colleges that work together. That's an increase of 30 percent from last year, said
Gretchen Bartel, an online teacher from Northwest Iowa Community College.
More than 100 online classes are available.
"That's been huge," said Jan Snyder, a vice president at Northwest. "It's allowed
our students to have a much broader offering of courses than what we could offer
as a smaller community college."
Price continues to be a draw. Tuition, fees, room, board and other expenses
average $11,236 this school year at Iowa's community colleges, data from the
Iowa College Student Aid Commission show. Those same expenses at Iowa's
three state universities average $16,328.
"You're going to save a lot of money, frankly, coming to a community college
rather than going to a private university or a state university," said Alan
Campbell, spokesman for Eastern Iowa Community College, which ties with Des
Moines for lowest tuition at $97 per credit hour.
Still, Iowa community college tuition ranks third-highest compared with
neighboring states. Iowa's average is 61 percent above the national average,
according to the Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac.
New programs, such as nursing in Newton, wine-making in Ankeny and
construction trades in Sheldon, are ways that community colleges have wooed
students. Some like the colleges' proximity to home and small classes.
Meanwhile, the belief that junior colleges are meant for people who don't qualify
for four-year universities is on the wane, said Barbara Campbell, a counselor at
Hoover High School in Des Moines.
"There is that concept out, but I don't feel it as strongly as I did 10 years ago,"
she said.
A vast majority of Iowa community college students are state residents, and more
than 80 percent stay in the state after graduation, according to the student aid
commission. College presidents say 65 to 70 percent of students go on to fouryear colleges.
Growing enrollment at community colleges could be having an impact on Iowa's
public universities. Enrollment at Iowa State University is 25,462 this fall, a
decrease of 1 percent.
"They're making a big dent in the four-year colleges," Campbell said. "I know that
Iowa State is concerned about losing students to community colleges."
But Marc Harding, Iowa State's director of admissions and enrollment
services, said community colleges are not a threat. He pointed out that freshman
enrollment increased this fall by 5.7 percent.
"It's just that more students are at Iowa's community colleges than ever before,"
he said. "It's imperative that we, Iowa State University ... build as strong a
relationship as possible with the community colleges."
This fall, 123 DMACC students are in a program that allows a "seamless
transfer" to ISU.
Students in the program have an academic adviser, an e-mail account and ISU
student identification card that gives them the same library access and student
rate to football tickets. They can even live in ISU housing; 10 of them do this
semester.
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