Back to school: MCC sees spike in enrollment

Feb 28, 2010 — East Valley Tribune

Sonu Munshi

Feb. 28, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Mesa resident Mike McLaughlin has hit a dead end in his job search. It's been six months since he worked as a night stocker at a local Walmart, something he couldn't keep pace with because of the odd hours and had to quit for health reasons.

But ever since, the 39-yearold has encountered a tough job market and rejection after rejection from employers, many of whom look for extra skills like being bilingual.

So McLaughlin decided to go back to school, at Mesa Community College's Red Mountain campus, to complete his associate degree and to learn Spanish.

It's people like McLaughlin that Jo Wilson, dean at MCC's Red Mountain campus, believes have helped punch up enrollment numbers by as much as 30 percent this spring compared with the same period last year.

"It's a huge jump," Wilson said.

In this latest semester, enrollment is at an all-time high of just over 4,000 students. Last spring's enrollment was 3,074. Wilson said that enrollment in the spring typically is less than in the fall semester.

Enrollment overall at MCC, including the older Dobson Road and Southern Avenue campus, has increased nearly 10 percent, from 23,750 in spring 2009 to nearly 26,000 in 2010.

Numbers are up for other schools in the Maricopa County Community Colleges District, too.

In fiscal year 2008-09, enrollment was at 261,585 compared with 260,467 in 2007-08. Fall 2009 enrollment was up 9.6 percent compared with fall 2008, with nearly 11,500 more students.

Nationwide, in a down economy, college enrollment tends to increase because people go back to school to add to their repertoire of skills, to change careers or to get new jobs.

But MCC Red Mountain was slower to show this trend.

"We had been puzzled by it, because enrollments at community colleges go up in economic downturns, but ours was not," Wilson said.

Two factors, she said, could have contributed to what she calls a "slight delay" in the college catching up to the national trend.

When Proposition 300 passed in November 2006 in Arizona, making undocumented students pay higher out-of-state tuition, that led to a drop in enrollment. Also, she said, Arizona's unemployment was huge in the construction industry.

"Those workers, rather than come back to school, moved to other places for jobs or waited for things to turn around," Wilson said. "And so it took a couple of years for them to say, 'Wait a minute, we might need to do something else.'"

The opening of the final section of Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway also helped make the college more accessible.

"That really gave opportunity for people to get here rapidly," Wilson noted.

Another factor: the opening of the 43,000-square-foot Saguaro building last year, which offers classes in life sciences and the performing arts.

Wilson said the 30 new sections offered in life science are "extremely popular" among students venturing into the health field.

Of late, night classes had seen great declines in enrollment, Wilson said, possibly because students couldn't afford to take as many classes. But this semester, those classes also increased.

"So returning adults are coming back," Wilson said.

McLaughlin also likes the location and the intimacy of the campus better than what a bigger university could offer. Being unemployed, affordability was a big factor, too.

Enrolling for 12 credit hours in a semester costs, on average, about $850 at MCC. The average cost at the three Arizona public universities is $3,000.

McLaughlin said he's doing his best to get more training and education to be more valuable to employers. He's the only "older" student in his class, but he said it's a trend he's noticed elsewhere on campus, too.

"People need to upgrade their skills and catch up," McLaughlin said.

NUMBERS RISING: Mesa Community College's Red Mountain campus was slow to show signs of people going back to school because of the down economy, but officials say that's changing. THOMAS BOGGAN, TRIBUNE

Newstex ID: KRTB-0132-42431925