2-Year College Chief Sees Growth Continuing

Increased enrollment this year at Orange County’s community colleges reflects strong local support from parents but also follows a statewide trend, California’s new chief of its 106 two-year institutions said Monday.

“Statewide information is not all in, but everything I have received indicates this spurt in growth (experienced in Orange County community colleges) is occurring on a statewide basis,” David Mertes, chancellor of the state’s community college system, said during his first official visit to the county.

Mertes, however, praised the Orange County community colleges for having strong local support from parents that has translated into higher enrollments. “I think the colleges here are excellent,” he said.

All Orange County community college districts have reported enrollment increases this fall. Growth ranges from 2.5% at Rancho Santiago College to almost 10% at Orange Coast College.

Mertes, based in Sacramento, was in the county Monday to meet with North Orange County Community College District officials during the day and to attend a dinner Monday night with elected trustees of all the county’s eight community colleges.

The 58-year-old administrator took over as chief of the community colleges on July 1.

He said the state’s community colleges face bright new prospects because of reform legislation and because of a return of support from parents.

In the early 1980s, the state’s community colleges, including those in Orange County, suffered enrollment plunges. The drop coincided with legislative criticism about “frivolous” courses in the colleges, a decline in the transfer rate of the colleges to four-year universities, and the imposition of tuition (called “enrollment fees”) for the first time in the two-year colleges.

Mertes said that because many questions had been raised statewide about the community colleges, some parents became wary of sending their children to the two-year institutions. “They said, ‘Maybe it’s better if the students go directly to the four-year universities,’ ” said Mertes.

This year, however, Mertes said he sees a big turnaround. Parents appear to again be strongly supporting community colleges. “We are seeing a reaffirmation of people’s attitude toward community college,” he said.

Part of the reason, Mertes said, is because “there has been a very stringent tightening of community college standards in recent years.”

Mertes said he sees 1988-89 as the major turnaround year for the community colleges. “I see it as a trend line that will continue through the 1990s,” he said. “I think there are a number of reasons for this. Community colleges have been through a long period of scrutiny, including questions about the mission, transfers, underfunding and so forth.”

More changes will come because of a massive reform bill that appears headed for passage and signature by the governor by September, Mertes said. The reforms, which stem from a lengthy statewide investigation by the state’s Education Master Plan Commission, include more stability in funding for the community colleges.

Community colleges currently are funded on an average-daily-attendance basis, the same as elementary and secondary schools. The reform legislation calls for “program-based funding.” This would give the colleges money based on the actual costs of the programs involved, rather than on the numbers of students enrolled.

Mertes said the existing funding system has “encouraged growth above everything, and it penalized very sharply a decline.” The danger, he said, is that “if you have a fiscal incentive to grow, then you find bright people in a college who will find ways to grow, and that has led to an accumulation of courses in the past that justifiably led to criticism.”

In the early 1980s, the Legislature complained about “frivolous” for-credit courses at the community colleges, including such things as jogging, macrame and belly dancing. The Legislature in 1983 ordered a halt to funding for such courses.

Mertes said Monday that as chancellor he intends to keep an eye on questionable courses offered by community colleges. “I will try to look at these (questionable courses) on a college-specific basis,” he said.