Southwestern Community College (SWCC) released its preliminary fall enrollment figures at Tuesday’s regular board of directors meeting.
The preliminary figures do not account for students who will be taking the college’s fall 12-week, and second term 8-week classes.
“Well, the good news is, we’ve officially, academically started the 2017-18 year,” said SWCC Dean of Student Services Beth Kulow. “And we have 1,587 students who are actively attending class.”
This figure includes all students who were enrolled in at least one 16-week class. These 1,587 students were enrolled in 15,145 credit hours.
Head-count enrollment was down 4.5 percent from last year. Total credit hours were down 3.1 percent.
The average credit hour decrease from across the state was 4.13 percent. The average head-count decrease from across the state was about .5 percent.
“We are trending,” said Kulow, “as you may recall, we had a population of more part-time students than full-time students since about the year that I’ve started here. And this year we are trending to move that gap just slightly. It looks like we will increase our number of full-time students as a percentage of that student body.”
Program report
SWCC Vice President of Instruction Bill Taylor delivered to the board the college’s annual program report.
Included in the program report is information regarding the college’s programs, including enrollment, for the 2016-17 academic year.
Also included is information regarding the college’s endeavors with high school career academies and distance education programs and the 2016-17 academic year, as well as a General Education Assessment report, which provides a snapshot of the college’s assessment processes and accomplishments.
Some highlights of the report:
• Enrollment in the college’s 14 high school career academies is 157 for the 2017 academic year.
• 782 SWCC students are enrolled in fall 2017 online classes.
• 63 students were enrolled in the college’s automotive repair technology program in the 2015-16 academic year.
• 40 students were enrolled in the college’s carpentry and building trades program in the 2017 academic year.
• 21 students were enrolled in the college’s information technology systems networking program for the 2017 academic year.
Lastly, Taylor presented to the board the college’s General Education Assessment Report.
“Our students,” said Taylor, “we feel, should have the skills in knowledge in those nine general education areas. And that’s basically what the report does for you.”
According to the report, 96 percent of the college’s CTE (Career and Technical Education) graduates reported that SWCC prepared them for their career field. And 93 percent of graduates available for employment were employed.
In other SWCC news:
• The college approved administrative action to move forward with a sewer line easement located just west of the college near Highway 34. A homeowner desired to connect to the sewer line located at the east entrance of the college, and was requesting an easement to be allowed to do so.
The board authorized the administration to enter into the easement, and discussed the possibility of further sewer line renovations in the area to open up future development possibilities.
• The board received an update of its current asset protection services by Phillip Tyler of Tyler Insurance Services, Inc. The college moved from a $500 to $2,500 property damage deductible. Also discussed in particular was the college’s cyber security protection. The college has been insured against cyber attack for four years.
• Two minor updates were approved by the board for the college's Quality Faculty Plan. The Quality Faculty Plan is a living document the college uses in hiring and developing new faculty members.