Reaches lowest number of students taking courses for credit  in 10 Years

The Community College released its annual audited Financial Report for 2016-17 at the February 2018 Governing Board meeting.  According to that report, enrollment by headcount District wide for students taking courses for credit was at its lowest level in a decade at 10,000.  In 2007/08 the student headcount was 15,582.

The Prescott Campus continued its slide.  It reported 1,149 FTSE in 2017-8 compared to 1,229 a year earlier (decline of 80 FTSE).  In 2007/08 the Prescott Campus reported 2,137 FTSE (difference of 988 FTSE).  The Verde Campus showed a FTSE decline of 8 over the previous year while the Prescott Valley Center showed a decline of 21 FTSE.  The Sedona Center reported only 1 FTSE, which was the same for the previous year.

The following is the report released in the College’s audited report.

Lack of sufficient funding also an issue 

President Penelope Wills told the College Governing Board at its November meeting that Coconino Community College had experienced a 12% drop in enrollment by headcount. She attributed the drop to a decision by Northern Arizona University (NAU) to close its residence halls to first-year Coconino students. Without the residence halls, she said students outside Flagstaff were unable to enroll in Coconino.

She also attributed the drop to a deemphasis by Coconino Community College on Career and Technical Education programs. Finally, he said that a lack of proper funding for the Community College may have also played a role.

President Wills comments on this issue can be viewed in the two minute video below. You may also view a video of the entire Board meeting by clicking here and then clicking on “Meeting Videos.”

Increase of 78 students over 2016; Wills says recruiting not a focus for the College until about two years ago. Says nothing about new Sedona program or efforts by Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee in re marketing begun three years ago

 Tom Hughes, Director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Research, reported to the Yavapai Community College  Governing Board on November 14 that fall enrollment had increased slightly in the district. There was a 1.1% increase in student headcount over 2016 and a .3% increase in the fall time student equivalents data.

President Penelope Wills attributed the increase to new recruiting efforts.  Wills said the College had not focused on recruitment until about two years ago.   (Wills did not mention the efforts by the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee’s work  begun about three years ago and the Committee’s alarm at the low level of recruiting activity by the College.)

Also not discussed by Wills as a reason for the slight enrollment increase in headcount is the  opening the Sedona Center culinary Institute. At least 70 students were enrolled this fall in that program. Regardless of the reasons for the increase, this was good news for the Community College as there are indications that some similar institutions in the State are experiencing a decline in enrollment.

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Headcount up by 1.6% over last fall and total credit hours up by .7%

Dr. Ron Liss, who oversees instruction, and  student development for Yavapai College, reported to the Governing Board at its September session that for the first time in six years Yavapai Community College has shown increased fall enrollment. The total headcount District-wide was up this fall by 1.6%. The total number of credits being taken by students District-wide this fall was reported at .7%.

Liss credited the reopening of the Sedona Center and several other factors that resulted in the increase.  He gave a special “thank you” to the staff for their hard work in helping the College enrollment increase.

You may view his video report announcing increased enrollment below.

Sedona Center enrollment up 1,235%

The College announced at the District Governing Board meeting on August 8, 2017 that headcount enrollment District-wide is up by 4.7%. In making the announcement, the College noted that it had been a long time since it had been able to announce enrollment was increasing. It also noted that enrollment at the Sedona Center was up by 1,235%. (Last year at this time enrollment at the Sedona Center was reported at 14.)

The Blog surmises the headcount is finally increasing for three reasons:  First, the administration is now using the telephone to contact students who they identified should have enrolled but did not for a variety of possible reasons. Second,  greater flexibility on dates to enroll. Third, the opening of the Sedona Center.

The announcement as reported to the District Governing Board by Dr. Liss follows below.

Phone calls reduce number of students who do not continue from fall to spring semester from 14% to 7%

Yavapai Community College has adopted the old fashioned approach of calling persons who indicate that they are not continuing to the spring semester after completing the fall semester. According to the College’s Vice President of Instruction and Student Development Ron Liss, the calling has been very successful.  For example, the College lost 14% of students in 2016 between the fall and spring semesters. However, this year because of the work by the Student Development Department, that number was cut in half. Only 7% of students who completed the fall semester did not return for the spring semester. Repeated calling students who were identified as failing to register for the spring semester is credited with the reduction.

Dr. Liss also says that the College is starting earlier and extending the semester in an effort to be more user friendly. You may view Dr. Liss’s report on spring enrollment to the Governing Board by clicking on the video below.

Slide begun ten years ago continues

The College reported at the February 14, 2317 Governing Board meeting that enrollment was down district-wide by 4% in the fall, 2016 and by 2% in the spring, 2016.  The College seemed happy the spring reduction was not as great as the fall.

As the College has done for years now, it blamed the absence of a recession and was content to say its decline was similar to that of other community colleges.  The College and the Governing Board has done little to focus on the reasons for the decline.

The College stated that by simply calling students who had not re-registered for the spring semester, it caused several to do so.  (Not rocket science.)  This seemed to the Administration a novel idea.

The Verde Campus has shown a slight increase in enrollment (using headcount) over the past two years.

Here is a chart showing the decline of enrollment by more than 6,000 students over the past several years using actual headcount as announced by the College.

College reports to District Governing Board a 2% decline in Spring, 2017 enrollment; Verde Campus up

The College will report at the Tuesday, February 14 meeting of the District Governing Board that it has continued its ten-year slide in enrollment for students seeking college credit classes as measured by headcount.  According to data provided the public by the College prior to the meeting, total student (for-credit) enrollment in Spring 2017 is down 2% compared to spring, 2016.

The College will also report that the Verde Valley Campus experienced a “slight increase” in its on-campus headcount–a trend in the last two years. The Verde Valley Fall Community education programs  grew by 11%.

Online enrollment increased by 6% but the increase did not prevent the College from an overall decline as measured by headcount.  

The fall 2016 enrollment by the independently run Osher Life Long Learning non-profit corporation grew  by 22% when compared to fall 2015.  

The College did not report out the total comparative data regarding fall, 2016 enrollment in advance of the Tuesday, February 14 meeting.

Note that despite the continued decline in actual students, those who registered at the College took more classes for college credit when compared to students enrolling in spring, 2016. (Thus the Full-time Student Equivalent comparison.)  The following graph will be presented to the Governing Board at the Tuesday meeting by the College.

Enrollment continues huge slide

One of the more puzzling questions about enrollment at Yavapai College has to do with the Prescott Campus. While enrollment at the Verde Campus has stopped its decline and has even shown a slight increase in the last year, the enrollment of students on the Prescott Campus continues in a precipitous slide.

In the College fiscal year 2009/10, Prescott reported in its audited annual report that there were 2,396 Full Time Equivalent Students (FTSE).  One FTSE equals twelve credits. By comparison, the College reported in August, 2016 that enrollment during the 2015/16 fiscal year had plummeted to 1252.7. This is a drop of 1,143.3 FTSE. This is a huge  drop.

If one compares 20016/07 FTSE with 2015/16, the result is a fall of 843.3 FTSE.  The decline is all the more surprising because the current administration has invested millions of dollars in construction on that campus.  It is also the center for all sports programs, major sports facilities, the Performing Arts Center, and Dell Webb Family Enrichment Center.

The drop in one year from 2014/15 to 2015/16 was 104.7 FTSE.  In terms of enrollment, this is huge.

Audited unduplicated data shows continual slide in enrollment; slide to continue

Yavapai Community College now (August 20, 2016) has 6,000 fewer students taking credit courses of any kind for credit than it did ten years ago.  This is according to the data provided by the College for the academic years 2006 thru 2015/2016. All of the data has been audited with the exception of the figure for 2015/16.

The drop has occurred despite the addition of on-line courses and an increase in dual enrollment courses. Using those additions, and anything else the College could label a credit offering to boost the enrollment count, the decline remains over 6,000 fewer students than ten years ago.   

One of the explanations for the decline, according to the College, is related to the recession.  It claims that more students take courses during a recession.  Then, when the recession is over, the number declines.

The audited headcount data from the College does not support the College’s recession claim.  It shows a steady decline in the actual number of students taking credit courses beginning in 2006, before the recession, with the decline continuing through the recession up to the present time.

As noted above, the chart below is based entirely on audited College data, with the exception of the past year’s data, which has yet to be audited.  The College anticipates the slide will continue this year. Watch out for the College spin masters on this issue.

The Verde Independent in an article dated August 18 (click here to read the article) quoted Yavapai College as explaining the decline in enrollment as follows: “Most of the decline in on-campus credit enrollments, says Hughes, “is the result of students migrating to on-line courses, not students exiting the college. Other factors impacting declining credit enrollment include an improving job outlook, and more community education and OLLI opportunities for personal interest students.”

As noted above, the total audited headcount included all students who were taking online, traditional in-class courses and any hybrid classes.  Moreover, OLLI is a program for persons 55 years old or more and OLLI is completely independent of the College Administration and control.  It is an independent 501(c)(3) organization created by a $2 million dollar grant to the College that pays for its independent operation.  It has its own governing committee that handles finances, curriculum, and other issues. Its faculty are not paid and it charges a fee for several of its programs to help support its independent operation.