CC enrollment down but funding number up

Clarendon College officials are pointing to a silver lining in the cloud of this semester’s enrollment report.

Enrollment is down 171 students this spring when compared to last year, but college funding is based on contact hours, which is the time students actually spend in classrooms. Contact hours this spring are up 1.7 percent over this past fall.

“We thought we would be down, and we are in headcount,” CC President Phil Shirley said. “But we’re up in contact hours, and that’s how we are funded. Anytime we have a better basis for funding, that is good for the college.”

Total enrollment settled at 1,277 following the 12th class day last Wednesday. That’s down from the spring 2011 enrollment of 1,448 and enrollment of 1,357 in spring 2010, but above the enrollment of 1,150 in spring 2009.

Shirley says three factors have negatively impacted the college’s enrollment – a new state vaccination requirement, the loss of a prison education program, and possibly an improving economy.

This semester saw the implementation of a Texas requirement that students meeting certain criteria obtain a bacterial meningitis vaccine prior to attending classes.

“The cost is $125 for that shot, and some students simply cannot afford it,” Shirley said. “There is also a shortage of the vaccine. This has probably caused a one to two percent loss of enrollment for us.”

Dean of Students Tex Buckhaults said CC took a proactive approach to the bacterial meningitis requirement in the fall, which likely helped prevent a larger decrease in enrollment this spring.

The state’s elimination of its prison education system cut students out of the college’s enrollment staring this past fall and resulted in the loss of 147 students this semester.  These courses were offered through the prison education system at the Roach and Jordan units of TDCJ in Childress and Pampa.

“Our enrollment last spring included the students from the TDCJ, and we are still working to recover those students,” Buckhaults said.

Other area colleges are also experiencing drops in enrollment this semester, and Shirley said that can be a sign that the economy is recovering.

“When the economy is good, college enrollment is down,” he said. “People are getting jobs, and that is directly influencing enrollment.”

Enrollment on the home campus this spring is 352, and the headcounts at Pampa and Childress were at 419 and 53 respectively as of last Wednesday, with the remainder of CC students taking online and dual credit classes.

Shirley said each CC campus has its own identity, and growth in Pampa comes from having a larger base to draw from.

“We don’t have the population to support a lot of commuter students in Clarendon, but we do in Pampa,” he said. “What Pampa doesn’t have is dormitories and athletics. In order to grow here, we have to recruit the students [to Clarendon] that we’re famous for – athletes and dorm students.”