Official fall-enrollment and credit-hour totals are lower this year at Southwestern Community College, Dean of Student Services Beth Kulow reported during a SWCC board meeting Tuesday.
“As I alluded to in our last meeting, we are down very slightly – actually six-tenths of a percent – in our headcount. So, for our official 14-day count, we were down 10 students coming in with our number of 1,646 students,” Kulow said. “Our credit-hour official count was 15,644 which is a decrease of about 4.5 percent.”
Kulow said SWCC has seen a decrease of 65 full-time students but an increase of 55 part-time students.
“And, two of the areas that we’ve targeted primarily with admissions, marketing and recruiting because of our employment needs, (in) health/science, we’re up approximately 30 students and manufacturing, we’re up approximately 20 students,” Kulow said.
After the 14-day count, SWCC had the opportunity to continue to increase enrollment with different term start dates throughout the fall semester.
“So, current enrollment to date, we’re actually only down three students,” Kulow said. “Right now, we have 1,660 students here on campus. And, we are down approximately 4 percent in credit hours.”
“That’s a really good number,” said Jerry Smith, SWCC board member and Iowa Association of Community College Trustees representative. “We don’t have any plant closings or major layoffs going on in the area, … so in the absence of that, it’s kind of difficult to increase our enrollment. It’s a good report.”
Default rate
During discussion, SWCC Board President Ken Rech noted the college received word from the U.S. Department of Education that its cohort default rate has decreased 3 percent.
A college’s cohort default rate is the percentage of its borrowers who enter repayment on certain loans during a federal fiscal year and default prior to the end of the next one to two fiscal years.
“That’s fantastic because there are several cohorts who are pushing 30 percent,” Rech said.
Construction
Regarding construction projects, Tom Lesan, SWCC vice president of economic development, reported the Spartan Drive project is complete. But, room 220 of the instructional building is delayed.
The project, which is installing new, more energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units in the auditorium-style room, was originally scheduled to be finished by the end of October.
“We’re probably now, more realistically, looking at the middle of November,” Lesan said. “The welding on the walkway to get to the units, which was supposed to take 13 days, took 43 days. ... It was just a lot more difficult than they had projected it to be. It’s not going to cost us any more except in time.”
Room 220 was reserved for an event toward the beginning of November, but the event has been moved back.
“The bad news is it is going to be three weeks late. The good news is it’s going to be done right, and it’s going to be very safe for our employees,” Lesan said.
In other SWCC news:
• The board re-elected Rech as board president, Tony Cass as board vice president, Mary Jo Skarda as board secretary and Tia Samo as board treasurer.
• The board re-appointed each of the members of the SWCC Education Foundation Board.