Boom times for community colleges in Edmonds and Everett

Published 2:58 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2008

With the economy faltering and family-wage jobs increasingly hard to find, enrollment is on the rise at local community colleges.

As classes get under way this week, Everett Community College has a record-high 7,414 students — that’s up 11 percent from last year. Edmonds Community College is also on track for its highest enrollment ever with 8,874 students — 7 percent more than at this point last September.

So many students have been using the EdCC’s Career Center to look for job training and work advice, more staff will likely be brought in to work at the center, said John Michaelson, vice president for college relations and advancement.

Though national figures aren’t available yet, anecdotal evidence suggests community colleges throughout the country are experiencing upswings in enrollment, said Davis Jenkins, a senior researcher at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University in New York City.

“When the economy turns down and job prospects dim, people return to school,” he said.

Job retraining courses at both Edmonds and Everett community colleges are increasingly popular. Interest in welding and fabrication courses at Everett Community College is “going out the roof” and staff are struggling to try to accommodate the demand, said Christine Kerlin, vice president for enrollment management.

At EdCC, the paralegal, health and computer training programs are especially popular this fall.

“We’re swamped,” said Stephanie Wiegand, director of communications at EdCC. “Our worker retraining programs are exploding. At the moment, we’re seeing increasing numbers of people with unemployment because they’ve been laid off from positions they’ve held for a long time — mostly from the banking and mortgage industries, as well as from a number of small businesses.”

A record number of students applied for fall admission at public universities in the Puget Sound region, but it’s unclear if or how that trend is related to the economy, said Karen Copetas, director of admissions and enrollment planning at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Western expects its largest freshman class ever this fall with nearly 2,700 enrolled.

“My sense is while we’re all feeling that the economy is going to make a difference in terms of students’ college selection, we don’t have any concrete evidence that that’s happening right now,” she said.

Applications were up 12 percent at the University of Washington, but director of admissions Philip Ballinger said it’s too early to tell whether enrollment trends have anything to do with the sluggish economy.

Adults tend to be more likely to pursue education at both four-year universities and community colleges during economic slumps, Jenkins said. Recent high school graduates aren’t influenced as much by the economy.

The end of the tech boom in 2001 was the last major economic downturn that drove people to community colleges, Jenkins said.

“Even public four-year colleges have become prohibitively expensive for many people,” he said. “That makes community colleges more attractive.”

Online education is exploding at both Edmonds and Everett community colleges. At Everett, officials are trying to coordinate online schedules so students have more options and can avoid driving to campus five days a week, Kerlin said.

“We’ve seen a huge surge of folks choosing to take courses online,” she said. “I think this is certainly related to people who are, first of all, juggling a busy schedule which includes commuting — and secondly (trying) to cut commuting costs.”

Administrators at both Snohomish County community colleges expect the enrollment boom to continue throughout the winter and as long as the economy stays sour.

“Given where the economy is, we’re already looking forward to a potentially a heavy enrollment in winter quarter,” Michaelson said. “People go back to work and enrollment goes down. They leave work and we often see more enrollment.”

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.