Turning to Learning
Enrollment jumps at Texas community colleges.
Job Training Opportunities
Community Partnership
Tools for Promoting Job Training Opportunities
Houston Community College (HCC) has a multi-faceted marketing and branding program focused on increasing enrollment. During summer 2008, it launched HCC Partners for Jobs, a grass roots campaign by HCC, community leaders and Houston-area employers and organizations aimed at helping Houstonians get training and education for good jobs.
About 80 percent of new jobs in Texas require education or training beyond high school. HCC provides training to more than 100,000 area students each year.
The culmination of phase one of the HCC Partners for Jobs, was a five-episode HCCTV program “Retrain, Reinvent, Re-enter,” to publicize the community college’s vast array of work force training programs. The series focused on retraining as the key and reinventing individual jobseekers as the strategy for re-entering the job market intent on obtaining new employment.
“The program reinforced the importance of education in today’s economy,” says Curtis Doolan, HCC media relations director. “The ultimate goal for the program was to let Houston area residents know about the education options available at HCC.”
Efforts to educate and train Texans at community colleges could be one reason many schools saw substantial enrollment growth this fall. Many colleges have double-digit percentage growth compared with fall 2008, but few came close to South Texas College’s 23 percent jump.
The school operates campuses in several Rio Grande Valley communities, including McAllen, Weslaco and Starr County. Officials reported the largest increases in career and technical fields, including nursing and allied health programs, education, criminal justice, child care development and criminal justice.
Heavy promotion of the opportunities – not least the cost advantages – of attending community colleges is touted by many Texas schools as factors in their fall enrollment growth.
“We have a pretty aggressive enrollment management model,” says Dr. Paul Illich, vice president of Research at McLennan College in Waco, which this fall opened an additional 250,000 square feet of classroom space, providing room for almost 16 percent growth compared to fall 2008.
Illich attributed a “pent-up demand” for surpassing growth expectations. Partner universities Tarleton State, UT-Arlington and Texas Tech University offer students the opportunity to earn a four-year degree at the college’s University Center, a partnership between McLennan and four-year state schools that agree to offer bachelor’s, master's and doctoral degree programs at the Waco campus.
“We projected enrollment of 9,000 and we had 150 more than expected. There is no doubt the economy is making community colleges very attractive, but for us the bigger reason is our University Center expansion.”
Like McLennan, additional space and focused marketing are the major reasons for almost 12 percent average growth across the five Alamo community colleges, bringing total enrollment above 60,000 for the first time among the San Antonio campuses.
“We opened 1.3 million square feet of new space in past year, funded from a 2005 bond,” says Leo Zuniga, vice chancellor of communications at Alamo Colleges. “This fall we completed 24 new buildings.”
Zuniga says Alamo Colleges continue to add dual credit high school students – currently more than 7,000 are enrolled – and high school students in technical academies training for careers at industrial companies, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
“We invested heavily in a marketing campaign; we were on radio and TV constantly,” he says. “This 12 percent fall semester increase is also due to an effective high school visitation program and an increase retention rate among our students.”
In the Texas Panhandle, Amarillo College points to its new renewable energy programs for attracting a third of its 9.7 percent enrollment growth to 11,000, its highest ever level.
“It is a combination of new programs, the economy and affordability because we didn’t raise tuition this past year,” says Communications Coordinator Joe Wyatt. Amarillo College’s previous peak enrollment was 10,700 in 2004.
Many of the renewable energy programs’ students are retraining for a new career. Amarillo College is offering certificate and associate degree programs for renewable energy students at its Amarillo and Dumas campuses.
Amarillo Economic Development Corp. contributed incentive funding for the college to start renewable energy programs, which are attracting students who otherwise would probably not have enrolled at Amarillo College.
College Enrollment Rises
Community Colleges across Texas report increased enrollment this fall. Here is a sampling of growth at schools around the state.
| School | Enrollment 2009 | Percent Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Alamo Colleges (San Antonio) | 60,366 | 11.9% |
| Amarillo College | 11,100 | 9.7% |
| Austin Community College | 40,248 | 12.0% |
| Dallas Community College District | 69,047 | 11.4% |
| El Paso Community College District | 27,471 | 9.8% |
| Houston Community College District | 60,907 | 19.9% |
| Laredo Community College | 9,353 | 14.1% |
| Kilgore College (Longview) | N/A | 15.7% |
| McLennan College (Waco) | 9,132 | 15.6% |
| Midland College | 6,304 | 5.0% |
| South Texas College (McAllen) | 27,132 | 23.2% |
| Tarrant County Fort Worth) | 44,355 | 12.0% |
“I’ve been to a couple of classes personally,” Wyatt says. “I would estimate the average age in the two different night classes is close to 30.”
The program is retraining for some, including one student who is looking for a better paying job than the bank teller position he held for three years after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in finance.
Dual credit classes, early college high school, “minimesters” and ESL classes are the classes that grew the most, but El Paso Community College officials don’t doubt the impact of the difficult economy on its 9.7 percent uptick to 27,471 students this fall. The growth shattered the previous high enrollment of 25,590 in fall 2005.
Military veterans discharged from Fort Bliss also have contributed to the growth, by staying in El Paso to pursue higher education, many with financial help from the new GI Bill. The 1,277 students, according to Guerra, have contributed to our increase in enrollment, but the state of our economy is mostly responsible for our record increase.
“People go back to school when they can’t find work,” says Carol Kay, director of Institutional Research at the college. “They try to improve their employment options.” TR