Community Colleges Report Big Enrollment Jump for Spring Term

Boosted by cheaper tuition costs and expanded course offerings, Ventura County’s community colleges opened their spring semester last week with enrollment 8% higher than a year ago.

Enrollment numbers for the spring semester are still tentative because late registration runs through this week, but they indicate enrollment is up substantially--a trend that should secure the college district more funding in the future, district officials said.

Total enrollment for the Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark campuses is 26,759 as of Friday--an increase of 2,142 students. Leading the pack in the percentage gains is Oxnard College, where the 6,035-student enrollment is up 17% from the last spring semester.

Moorpark College logged 10,540 students, an increase of 7% from last year’s figures. Ventura College enrollment is 10,184, a 4% increase over last spring.

District spokeswoman Barbara Buttner believes the dramatic increase at Oxnard stems in part from the Camarillo Center, a new satellite campus that opened in the fall, as well as from the main campus’ new Letters and Science Building and the new sections added to the course schedule.

The Camarillo Center, in the Camarillo Village Shopping Center at Arneill and Las Posas roads, opened last semester with 750 students. The center has almost reached its enrollment goal of 1,000 students for this semester with Friday’s total of 997.

“All in all, the district has had a little more money to add additional classes, open Camarillo Center, offer classes in off-campus areas and, in general, to make going to school easier for the student,” Buttner said, adding that the ease of telephone registration might have also lured more students this semester.

For all three of Ventura’s community colleges, greater enrollment also means more funding.

The most important factor in community college funding is the number of full-time equivalent students, or FTEs, said Harry Culotta, the district’s budget director.

The Legislature includes in its funding for California community colleges a certain percentage for growth in FTEs, cost-of-living adjustments and funding for special programs.

The Chancellor’s Office of California Community Colleges calculates a total number of FTEs for which the district can get funded. This amount is referred to as the cap.

“In order to receive that maximum level of funding, we actually have to enroll that number of students,” Culotta said. “If we grow to our cap this year, then in the 1997-98 school year our growth potential from that year will be calculated from our cap of this year.

“It is important for us when the state provides growth revenue to do everything possible to grow to that limit so that new limit becomes the base for the following year,” he added.

The Legislature revoked growth funding when the recession hit its peak from 1991 to 1995. During this time, community colleges across the state invoked a $50-a-unit fee, causing a decline in enrollment.

In the 1995-96 school year, when the economy finally turned around, growth funding resumed, allowing the cost to drop to $13 a unit, the least expensive in the nation, Culotta said.