MHCC’s enrollment down 3 percent from last fall, up 14 percent from 2007

Enrollment for fall 2011 is down 3.1 percent from fall 2010 but up 14.7 percent from five years ago, according to Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management David Minger.
At the start of the term, enrollment was actually up by several percent from fall 2010 said Minger in an email Tuesday, but by the second week it had dropped to its current level of 11,425 of unduplicated headcount students, down from 11,787 from the same time last year.
“As the quarter goes along, more registration will happen – from late starting classes, late adds, and groups of registration that come in later in ‘batches’ – big chunks of registration forms for a whole class at a time,” said Minger.
“The fact that those additional registrations will be coming in is what makes our final fall 2011 numbers a ways off yet,” he added.
Minger also said there is 14.7 percent growth within the college from five years ago in fall 2007, when there were 9,963 students.
While the increase over the last five years has been positive in terms of tuition paid by students, the state reimbursement has not been necessarily increasing, said Minger. While MHCC enrollment is increasing, most colleges are also seeing increased enrollment, and MHCC still maintains a similar percentage as previous years with similar growth.
What helps calculate this state reimbursement is the Student Full-Time Equivalent Enrollment, or SFTE. This is defined by the state in the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) enrollment, which says that one FTE (or SFTE for MHCC) is equivalent to 510 hours of coursework for a twelve-week term or 467.5 hours for an 11-week term.
The SFTE then is used to determine the level or rate of state reimbursement, with 40 percent defined as first-year status and 30 percent each for second- and third-year status.
Minger said of the FTE system that “basically it means that enrollment increases (or decreases) have their effect spread out over a three-year period in a 40:30:30 ratio.
“We can grow a whole bunch but still get the same slice of the pie,” he added.
Only students enrolled in credit classes are counted in the SFTE algorithm.
The state is considering moving to a different system that would be based on completion rather than on enrollment.
“This is a challenge because a lot of our students are transfer students or will transfer with their degree,” said Minger of the proposed system.
MHCC is still the fourth largest community college, behind Portland, Lane in Eugene and Chemeketa in Salem.
“Some are up, some are down. We are all a little down, but we’re kind of all in the same boat,” said Minger.
“We think that this year, with the economy still in trouble, it will drive people into higher education and will drive up financial aid demands,” said Minger.
If the economy gets better, though, there will be a little drop in enrollment, but still up from the five-year period, he added.
The college has expanded its recruiting with student outreach teams like SOAR, which are groups of students who go out to programs and high schools to recruit.
There has also been an increased importance put on online recruitment and getting students who apply for admission but do not sign up for classes or financial aid to come into the college, said Minger.