Fewer Students Register in Area Colleges

Ventura County’s community colleges enrolled about 5% fewer students for the current term than last spring, college district officials said last week.

District officials held out hope earlier in the month that enrollment figures might be up a bit from last spring--a rise that would offset a 12% plunge in enrollment between fall, 1992, and fall, 1993.

But with enrollment numbers down again, administrators said Friday they could face cuts of up to $1.25 million from the district’s 1994-95 budget.

Jeff Marsee, the district’s vice chancellor for administrative services, said the district’s preliminary enrollment, following mail and in-person registration, is 23,749 students for spring, 1994. Final figures will not be available until after students finish adding and dropping classes, he said.

Moorpark College enrolled 9,528 students, Ventura College enrolled 9,249, and Oxnard College registered 4,972, he said.

The state’s community college districts receive extra funding for each extra student enrolled, up to a limit determined individually for each district. The Ventura County Community College District, like many districts, has enrolled students above its limit for so long that the maximum funding level has become a base amount that officials rely upon in planning their yearly budget.

Now, however, the Ventura district might fall below its limit.

Marsee said administrators will ask district trustees to put at least $1 million of the district’s 1994-95 budget in reserves in anticipation of state funding cuts.