Enrollment trends unclear

If you think the parking lots at North Lake College are more crowded than previous semesters, you're right. But if you think that means more students are attending classes here, you're wrong --on paper anyway. It all depends on how you count them.

The Dec. 12 issue of Community College Week lists North Lake College as the seventh fastest growing community college in the United States with more than 9,500 students enrolled in credit classes in 2002, which is up from 8,200 in 2001. But since then, according to district records, enrollment at North Lake has plummeted to around 7,900.

The reason is not necessarily because there are fewer bodies in the building. The decline in numbers is attributable to several factors, explained Janis Browning, marketing and public information director at North Lake in an e-mail to the News-Register. Most notably, adjustments to meet SACS requirements.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools visited last spring and recommended several significant changes. With accreditation on the line, the administration of North Lake made the necessary modifications.

"In fall 2003, we had to reduce our number of part-time faculty to comply with SACS credentials," stated Browning. "During fall registration, many sections were not added as the regularly scheduled sections filled. As part-time faculty teaches the majority of these sections, we were unable to staff up to our usual course load."

She further explained that, "Also because of SACS requirements, many of our credit offerings at the West Campus were converted to non-credit, which do not show up in the reported numbers, although enrollment is healthy in these construction-related courses."

Other reasons for the drop in official enrollment numbers include fewer international students due to new immigration regulations and the discontinuing of late registration.
But this is not to say that there are actually fewer students on the main campus.

"In reality, enrollment in our core academic courses is up," continued Browning. "This represents over 6000 students who are here taking 3 to 12 hours of academic courses."
"And, because most of our students hold down jobs . . . they all want to take the courses at the same time, which results in crowded classrooms and parking lots."

And it all comes back to parking, doesn't it?
According to North Lake president Dr. Linda Glasscock, plans are in the works to expand parking at North Lake.

"What we are trying to do as a district is anticipate what we can expect in the future," she said. "We are currently having community meetings about our capital improvement master plan, which includes infrastructure, acquisition of additional land and transportation plans," she explained. "And parking is on the list, as well as instructional space and faculty and staff."

But don't be surprised if the process moves slower than you would like. Glasscock explained that funding from the state is based on contact hours. Because of the changes related to our SACS visit, those have decreased.

And with funding trickling down from the state and being allocated by the district, "We are serving more students and we're having to make the money go further," she said.