Junior Colleges in L.A. Bracing for New Drop in Rolls

As classes for the spring semester begin today, Los Angeles community colleges are expecting another sharp drop in enrollment, continuing a slide that began in 1982 and which shows no sign of slowing.

The nine campuses reported that by Monday about 77,000 students were signed up for classes, down from about 103,000 at the same time last year.

At their peak in 1982, before the statewide struggle that ended the free-tuition policy, the two-year colleges in Los Angeles enrolled about 136,000 students.

Most other community colleges in Southern California will not begin their second semester until late this month or early February, and most have not suffered huge enrollment declines. During the fall, the state’s 107 community colleges reported having 8% fewer students than the previous year.

Fee of $50

But Los Angeles colleges have been reeling from a drop-off that is officially blamed on the new state polices requiring a $50-per-semester fee and extra charges for students who drop out of courses.

“It’s been grim,” said Gary Stakan, dean of administration at Los Angeles City College. “It’s been very slow. We were hoping it (student registration) would increase after New Year’s, but the numbers just haven’t been there. We needed 500 or 600 a day and we have been getting 200 or so.”

City College is actually in better shape than most schools in the city. Stakan is projecting a 17% enrollment decline this spring compared with last spring.

Southwest College, a campus serving mostly black students in South Los Angeles, has again seen the biggest enrollment loss. Only 44% as many students were enrolled this week as during the same period last spring.

College officials, sounding somewhat shell-shocked over the latest bad news, say no single factor accounts for the huge exodus of students. They also point out that registration will continue for another two weeks, or longer, depending on the campus.

Several Factors Cited

The enrollment decline stems from “a combination of factors: the enrollment fee, the fact that we started the semester earlier, and the drop fee,” Stakan said. Students who drop more thanone course after the first month of class are assessed a $20 drop fee, a policy that he said h1634952306 This year, for the first time, community college students were charged a $50 fee for a full load of classes, although low-income students could have their fee waived by the district or paid through a state scholarship.

“It sounds incredible that some people won’t pay $5 for a course or $50 for a semester, but I can’t see any alternative explanation,” said John Barnhart, assistant dean of admissions at Valley College.

Two years ago, Valley enrolled 24,800 students, Barnhart said. This spring, he expects to have about 15,000.

Gerald Hayward, California community college chancellor, said statewide figures on the two-year colleges’ enrollment will not be available until mid-February.

Early Start of Semester

In an unusual departure, the Los Angeles college district decided to begin its fall semester on Aug. 20 so classes could be completed for the Christmas holidays. As a result, the second semester is beginning several weeks earlier than normal.

“I don’t know any other districts starting this early,” Hayward said. But he branded the preliminary figures from Los Angeles “astonishing,” adding that the district faced a potential budget crisis in the coming year because of the huge enrollment slide.

Under the current state budget for community colleges, payments are tied directly to enrollment, but a lower enrollment this year won’t affect the level of state aid until next year, he said.

Despite two years of enrollment declines, the Los Angeles district has not laid off any full-time faculty members and recently agreed to a 6% salary increase for its nearly 4,000 instructors.