Fall 2021 enrollment 1.6% over fall 2019 and 25.6% over fall 2020 | Spring enrollment so far down from 2019 by 9.8% but eight-week class enrollment not completed | Spring enrollment already up 11.6% over 2021
Yavapai Community College president Dr. Lisa Rhine reported to the District Governing Board at its February 22, 2022, meeting on the robust enrollment in the fall and spring. It came as a welcome surprise to the Governing Board because community colleges in Arizona and elsewhere are showing dramatic declines in enrollment.
For example, the Arizona Republic reported December 1, 2020 in an article by Rachel Leingang that “enrollment plumets at Maricopa Community Colleges for fall semester” and was down 14.5% in fall 2021 compared to fall 2020. In another article in the Arizona Republic on February 19, 2022, Ms. Leingang reported that “overall enrollment [at Maricopa Community Colleges] at the start of this spring [2022] semester was 23% below spring 2020 and 11% below spring 2021.” She also reported that Maricopa County Community Colleges District “is teetering on the edge of a fiscal cliff as enrollment continues to drop.”
On October 1, 2021 Ms. Leingang reported in a story in the Arizona Republic that “At Maricopa Community Colleges and Pima Community College, current numbers show enrollment is down 17% and 19% respectively from fall 2019. In those districts, which combined include over a dozen separate campuses, that amounts to over 23,000 fewer students enrolled now than before the pandemic.”
In her report to the District Governing Board, Dr. Rhine said Fall 2021 enrollment was 1.6% over fall 2019 and 25.6% over fall 2020 . She also said that spring enrollment so far was down from 2019 by 9.8% noting she anticipates that figure will go down once the data for the spring 2022 eight-week class enrollment is compiled. The Spring enrollment for 2020 is already up 11.6% over 2021.
You may view the short four minute video clip of Dr. Rhine’s enrollment report to the District Governing Board below.
Sources: District Governing Board meeting February 22, 2022; You may read all of Ms. Leingang’s articles in the Arizona Republic at https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2022/02/19/enrollment-falls-maricopa-community-colleges-face-ongoing-deficits/6830881001/ (fiscal problems for Maricopa); https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2021/10/01/student-enrollment-arizonas-community-colleges-continues-fall/5815511001/ (Maricopa and Pima); https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2020/12/01/maricopa-community-colleges-see-big-enrollment-drop-fall-semester/6468854002/ (enrollment plummets at Maricopa).