Night enrollment takes hit
Daniel Reynold
-Staff Writer-
As of Feb. 3, 2012 STLCC campuses enrollment had dropped 2.8 percent or 795 students across all four campuses. Meramec made up 3.5 percent of the total drop with 386 students, which resulted in Deans having to cut classes.
“With the dip in enrollment, that’s expected,” said Kim Fitzgerald, enrollment management coordinator. “Departments are being much more strategic about how they plan their classes.”
Acting Vice President of Academic Affairs Vernon Kays said the biggest reasons for the decreased enrollment are the economy and high school graduates.
“The economy is getting a little better around here,” Kays said. “As it gets better we get less enrollment, but the biggest reason is the number of high school graduates has decreased.”
This time last year Meramec had 442 new first time students. As of Feb. 3, the number of new first time students was at 443, the biggest hit the campus has taken is in continuing students according to the school enrollment counts.
The Meramec campus had 10,877 students this time last year. Of those students, 8,053 are students from the previous year. This year it has decreased to 7,709 students from last year.
“We retain about 75 percent of our students from fall to spring, and only about 50 percent from fall to fall,” said Fitzgerald. “The problem with community college and retention is it’s really hard to measure.”
Some could be finished with their degree, some might have done poorly academically, they might have run out of money, they could have changed jobs, or had daycare problems, Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald stated that if a students’ class gets canceled, it falls on her department to get the student in another class that they need as quickly as they can.
