Kirkwood enrollment continues to drop

CEDAR RAPIDS - Total enrollment at Iowa's 15 community colleges continued its decline this fall - although the slight dip of about half a percent was less than last year's 6.3 percent drop.

Iowa's community colleges are reporting 93,772 part- or full-time students - .5 percent fewer than the 94,234 community college students reported for fall 2013, according to an Iowa Department of Education 2014 fall enrollment report made public Wednesday.

Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood Community College, with 14,268 students, and Des Moines Area Community College, with 23,526 students, remain the state's largest community colleges, according to the report.

While Kirkwood saw a bigger-than-average enrollment drop, with 7 percent fewer students than last fall's 15,345, the Des Moines-based community college saw the state's biggest enrollment increase with 16.7 percent more students.

Officials for Kirkwood, which has 11 locations across seven counties in Eastern Iowa, said its total fall enrollment is slightly higher than reported by the state. The college has 438 'late-start” students, whom the Department of Education doesn't allow Kirkwood to count for its official fall enrollment report, said Jon Buse, Kirkwood dean of students.

Kirkwood offers late-start classes to keep students who are unable to start at the traditional time from falling behind, Buse said. Including every student currently taking classes at Kirkwood, including those who started late, this fall's enrollment is 14,706, which represents a 4.2 percent drop from last year.

The decline is something Kirkwood 'anticipated and has been planning for,” Buse said. And he believes it's tied to two factors - fewer high school graduates in Kirkwood's seven-county area and improvement in the region's economic health.

'Historically, when the economy has not performed well, our enrollment goes up,” Buse said. 'Where we are now is a natural correction in overall enrollment.”

Kirkwood, like nearly every other community college in the state, saw a big increase following the 2008 recession and reported enrollment figures topping 10,000 in 2010. That jump made Kirkwood the biggest community college in the state - surpassing even Des Moines Area Community College, which had 9,629 students at the time, according to state reports.

But those types of spikes can be difficult to manage, Buse said.

'It stressed us in a way that is difficult to provide good services,” he said. 'Slow growth is easier to plan for and anticipate.”

That, Buse said, is the goal going forward - to maintain or increase slightly.

But Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich earlier this month said growth could become more difficult thanks to a proposed change in how state funding is allocated to Iowa's public universities. The Board of Regents over the summer approved a new funding model that ties 60 percent of state support to in-state enrollment, prompting the institutions - like the University of Iowa - to funnel more resources into recruiting Iowans.

Wednesday's report shows that 91 percent of Iowa's community college students this fall came from inside the state.

'All of us are going to be fighting for those Iowa students,” Starcevich said during a Nov. 5 event hosted by the Corridor Business Journal.

But, Buse said, competition is not new to the higher education landscape in Iowa, and Kirkwood's focus is to find those students best served by its model.

'We are continuing to try to reach as many students as we can,” he said.

In addition to the slip in enrollment, Iowa's community colleges also reported a decline in total semester hours. Students are registered for 832,233 hours, down 4.6 percent from last year. Kirkwood saw the biggest drop in semester hours in the state, at 16.4 percent, according to the report.

Kirkwood also saw its percentage of full-time students drop from 47 percent last year to 36 percent this year, while its part-time percentage increased from 53 percent to 64 percent.

Buse said that shift, in part, can be attributed to more students working while taking classes to make ends meet.

'We know more students here are working more hours to support their families and themselves,” he said. 'A lot of that is a product of students needing to meet their financial responsibilities.”

Iowa's community colleges collectively saw a slight 1.2 percent decline in enrollment for online courses, with Kirkwood again representing the biggest decline in the state with 16 percent fewer students taking those courses.

One community college demographic that saw a bump this fall was high school students. Joint enrollment of those teenagers increased 12.2 percent - from 28,028 to 31,446. That, according to Buse, is the result of community college efforts statewide, like those involving Kirkwood's new regional centers, to provide more resources and access to high school students.

Kirkwood also is reporting an 11.7 percent increase in returning students this fall over last, which Buse said represents its efforts to focus on student success.

'We are monitoring our ability to serve the students we have,” he said.