Officials Hope Fee Drop Will Lure Students

Braving long lines and complicated course schedules at Oxnard College, Suzanne Leon of Santa Paula registered Thursday for two classes she had been waiting to take since 1993.

Like many Ventura County residents with a full-time job and bachelor’s degree, Leon had simply wanted to take some self-improvement classes in her spare time. For Leon, it was tennis and racquetball lessons.

But in spring semester 1993, the state increased community college fees for four-year degree holders from $6 to $50 a unit, boosting the cost of one three-unit class by $132.

That was too rich for her blood. “More than $200 for a couple of classes,” said Leon, a 30-year-old child development specialist. “No way.”

When she heard the state had dropped a $50 registration fee for students with bachelor’s degrees to $13, she joined about 400 students at Oxnard College’s first day of walk-in registration Thursday.

“I’m happy they stopped,” she said. “It seems silly that they would discriminate against someone just because they had a bachelor’s degree.”

Though registration for all three Ventura County colleges won’t be completed until the end of this month, college officials are pinning their hopes on students such as Leon to reverse a districtwide four-year enrollment slump.

The three-campus district has lost 16% of its student body since the fall semester of 1992.

Many college officials blamed the drop, in part, on the $50 fee hike and have trumpeted this semester as the turning point in reversing the slump.

So far, it is too early to tell. All three colleges finished enrolling their continuing students in November, but the last stage of registration--when classes are opened to all students--is just beginning. Oxnard College started Thursday, Ventura College begins Tuesday and Moorpark College on Wednesday.

But based on figures so far, officials are optimistic.

“We feel right now that we will have an increase,” said Floyd Thionnet, vice president of student services at Moorpark College. “You get a feel for it at the counter and we think there is some impact [from removal of the $50 fee] already.”

Ventura College has so far reported a 6% increase in the number of students registered the same time last year; Moorpark has seen a gain of about 200 students and Oxnard College seems to be breaking even, the registrars said.

On Tuesday, Philip Westin, the new chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District, said his top priority will be to increase enrollment, but he warned that it will take more than the drop in fees for four-year degree holders to bring students back.

“I think it will help,” he said. “But students won’t return with the rapidity with which they left.”