Community College Times: Managing Ever-Increasing Enrollments

 

Community College Times highlighted two SunGard Higher Education customers in an article about using technology to manage growing enrollment. The article states, “With more students and less money, colleges are weighing options such as capping enrollment, downsizing faculty, raising tuition and holding classes on weeknights and weekends ...

Carol Eustis, dean of health professions at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Maryland, is another proponent of online classes, especially because her programs have been strained to accommodate a 20 percent enrollment increase. Renovations and off-campus leases are underway, but a $1.8 million budget reduction has hindered these efforts, she says. Online nursing students come to campus only one day each week to do clinical and lab work, Eustis says. Since the course debuted in 2007, enrollment has increased by 96 students.

Florida Keys Community College (FKCC) had no enrollment strategy until leads from area high schools—its largest base of potential students—started declining. The college decided to invest $250,000 and buy the Banner Enrollment Management Suite. 

Before the Web-based software was in place, recruiters treated every prospect the same and spent lots of time and money pursuing soft leads that did not pay off, according to college officials. Now enrollment data is in one central location, marketing and recruitment materials are sent electronically and redundancies have been eliminated. Operations are more efficient, resulting in annual savings of nearly $6,000.

‘The first week (of registration), we had higher numbers than last year,’ says Bryan Gilchrist, the college’s IT director. ‘That has to be because of the communication that Banner allows.’"

http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/article.cfm?ArticleId=2612