by Dylan Bradley/editor-in-chief
TR Campus saw its enrollment double this fall compared with last fall — sort of.
With TCC Connect still waiting to be accredited as its own campus, all distance learning, dual credit and weekend college enrollment has been merged with TR Campus, causing its numbers to grow by 9,054 students.
“Because their [TCC Connect] facilities are housed here, their administrators, they merged them with all of our enrollment,” said TR vice president of academic affairs Bryan Stewart. “So our enrollments are astronomical when you compare them to what they were a year ago because we’re including all those folks.”
Overall, the district saw an enrollment decrease of 1.4 percent this fall with 49,824 students as of Aug. 25.
NE Campus saw an 18 percent decrease, partly attributed to the movement of its online courses to TCC Connect.
Technical programs being moved to other areas were cited as one reason by NE vice president of academic affairs Gary Smith.
“We’ve lost about 10 technical programs off of this campus in the last few years,” he said. “You can’t lose 10 technical programs from your campus and not have an effect. Historically, it’s a good barometer of the economy. The state of the business community and the economy and the job market have always been a reflection of our enrollment.”
SE Campus saw a 20 percent decrease this fall, of which 2,600 students were part of the shift to TCC Connect.
“We actually are slightly up, about a percent or so,” SE vice president of academic affairs Leann Ellis said. “Our face-to-face lecture courses are thriving well on campus as evidenced by the parking.”
