Enrollment Losses Bottoming Out : Community Colleges Appear on Way Back

After four years of declining enrollment, most community colleges in Orange County now are showing signs of renewed growth.

“It’s very encouraging,” said Jim Carnett, marketing director at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. “We had senior day earlier this month, and high school seniors were all over our campus. It gave me a very positive feeling.”

Enrollment at Orange Coast this spring is 22,790--up 40 students from last spring, according to Jack McGill, dean of admissions. While the growth is small, McGill said, it signals the end of declining enrollment. “We think we’ve bottomed out,” he said.

Like the other seven community colleges in the county, Orange Coast suffered severe enrollment losses in the early 1980s. The college went from 30,551 students in the fall of 1981--when it was the biggest single-campus community college in the nation--to a low of 22,342 students in the fall of 1985.

The decrease meant millions of dollars in lost income, because the state funds community colleges according to enrollment.

Virtually all California community colleges suffered enrollment drops in the 1980s, and their officials put most of the blame on Sacramento. The big drops, starting in 1982-83, came when Gov. George Deukmejian instituted tuition and vetoed extra money for the colleges. About the same time, the Legislature withdrew funding for college courses it called “frivolous,” such as belly dancing and macrame.

With fewer courses to offer, there were fewer students. That led to more layoffs and to still fewer classes. The cycle of decline was particularly galling to two-year colleges in Orange County, where enrollment was booming at the same time at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton.

But the rapid growth at the four-year universities may be helping the community colleges indirectly. Because Cal State Fullerton and UCI have closed most freshman admission for next fall, the community colleges probably will get more applicants.

Officials at all eight colleges said that this and other factors, including better marketing and fewer job opportunities than in recent boom years, are cause for optimism.

“The unemployment picture always affects community colleges,” said Tom Kosuth, dean of admissions at Golden West College. “When there is higher unemployment, more persons tend to go to community colleges. In recent years, Orange County has had very low unemployment, and so many young people have taken jobs rather than go to college.”

The decline cycle, however, already had stopped at six of the eight community colleges. An informal survey Tuesday found that only Coastline Community College, based in Fountain Valley, and Golden West College in Huntington Beach continue to show enrollment decreases this year. But officials at both colleges said they think the enrollment has leveled off.

Decrease ‘Something Unusual’

“I think the decline is at the bottom,” Kosuth said. Golden West, with a high of 23,159 students in the fall of 1981, had 15,008 students last fall. “Now I think our enrollment is going to stabilize at about 15,000,” Kosuth said.

John Breihan, dean of admissions at Coastline, said, “I think our decrease this year is something unusual that won’t happen again. I think we’re going to have a stable enrollment of about 15,000 in the future.” Coastline dropped from 29,128 students in 1981-82 to 15,283 students by 1983-84. Last fall, the figure was 14,153.

“I really don’t know what happened last fall,” said Breihan. “We had a record summer enrollment, and maybe a lot of those students didn’t want to go on and take fall courses. But we’re changing to a late-starting semester next fall, and I think that will make a difference. I don’t think we’ll have another year of decreases.”

At Cypress College, enrollment this year is up about 1%, according to Sandy McLeod, dean of admissions. “We’re being more aggressive in marketing our classes,” he said. “Our enrollment this spring is 13,637. At one point, Cypress College had an enrollment of about 15,000 students. That enrollment has been dropping off since the fall of ‘82, and we’ve been clawing our way back up ever since.”

High Reached in 1982

Fullerton College is enjoying a 3.9% enrollment increase this spring compared to the same semester a year ago, said Registrar Kris Burns. “We have 17,365 students this spring,” she said. “Our high year was 1982, when we had an enrollment of 20,060.”

Rancho Santiago College, which has campuses in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange, reported a spring enrollment of 20,417. Although that is only 70 more than last spring, admissions Dean Hal Bateman said, “I think we’ve bottomed out.” Rancho Santiago reached its highest enrollment in 1983, when it had 25,733 students.

Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and its sister college, Irvine Valley College, jointly are showing growth this spring, said Herman Schmidt, Saddleback’s dean of admissions and records. Schmidt said the colleges had a total enrollment of 23,921 students last fall, compared to 22,444 in the fall of 1985.