Valencia 2-Year College Leads in Growth : Education: Enrollment at College of the Canyons--now 5,668 students--is expected to double by the year 2000.

College of the Canyons, which serves the rapidly developing Santa Clarita Valley, has become the fastest-growing community college in the state, and education officials predict its enrollment will more than double by the year 2000, college President Dianne G. Van Hook said Wednesday.

California Community College system planners recently singled out the Santa Clarita Valley as a potential site for one of 16 new community colleges the state is expected to need by 2005, Van Hook said.

Last month, the Board of Governors of the community college system was told that enrollment at the state’s two-year colleges--about 1.3 million students--could increase by 400,000 in 15 years. State educational planners said the Santa Clarita Valley, along with Riverside and San Bernardino counties, would be prime candidates for new campuses.

During the early 1980s, enrollment at College of the Canyons ranged from 3,000 to 3,400 students, Van Hook said. But in 1986 the population began rising sharply, reflecting the rapid development of the surrounding valley, she said.

The college’s rapid growth also shows that more and more students view community colleges as an affordable source of technical training for fields such as nursing or computer science, Van Hook said.

The college had 3,579 full- and part-time students in 1986. By 1988, enrollment had jumped to 4,890 students, and the college now has 5,668 students, a 15.1% increase over last year, Van Hook said.

Statewide, community college enrollment increased an average of 4% over last year, said a Board of Governors spokeswoman.

In recent years, College of the Canyons was the seventh fastest growing community college in the state. But figures released Oct. 1 show the college outpacing the state’s 106 other two-year colleges in growth, said Hans Johnson, a research analyst with the state Department of Finance in Sacramento.

The department estimated that College of the Canyons will have 10,970 students by 1998, Johnson said. Van Hook predicted about 15,000 students by the end of the century.

If a new community college is built in the Santa Clarita Valley, the outlying areas of Castaic and Canyon Country would be likely sites, Van Hook said. The California Post-Secondary Education Committee is studying where new campuses should be built.

The burgeoning student population is beginning to tax the facilities at the school, Van Hook said. The library, for example, is designed to serve about 2,000 students. If the student population reaches 15,000, the library would have to be expanded by 418%, she said.