More students and less money for colleges
By ROYCE ARMSTRONG
With the economy on the skids and unemployment courting double-digit levels, the current recession just may have a silver lining for South Mississippi businesses.
"Tough times don't last, but tough people do," said Anna Faye Kelley-Winder, vice president of Community Campus and Institutional Development at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. "And right now, the tough people who are unemployed or underemployed are going back to school."
"Enrollment is up. We have just seen another record enrollment," said Jim Kelly, the vice president of instructional affairs for Jones County Community College. "Last Monday (Jan. 11), we registered more students in that one day that we have ever registered in one day in the 100-year history of the college. It was about 13 percent above this same time last spring."
Kelly said that colleges across the state are all having jumps in enrollment.
"The growth is all across the campus, but we are seeing it a lot in the non-traditional students right now," he said. "People are losing their jobs and they are looking for somewhere to go, retrain and try and get a fresh start."
Matthew Calhoun, the vice president of admissions and registrar for Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, said that high unemployment was just one reason student enrollment was up.
"We have not had an increase in our tuition for several years," Calhoun said. "The universities have increased their tuition, and because of that, we have seen a sharp increase in both traditional and non-traditional age students."
Many of these colleges are gearing programs and services toward the current influx of non-traditional age students.
"We started a non-traditional student center that opened last year," Kelly said. "It couldn't have happened at a better time."
About half of the students as JCJC are non-traditional age students.
"We also have a lot of veterans coming in right now," Kelly said.
The most sought-after courses and curriculum programs are anything with a quick financial return.
“Welding has been very, very much in demand and still continues to be,” Kelley-Winders said. “Most of our craft areas for the shipbuilding industries and other manufacturing areas need workers. Those jobs in demand include anything in metal fabrication, machine tools and those related to shipbuilding. “Medical field courses are also in high demand."
Calhoun said his college’s most recent new program is process technology.
"They have set that program up for people who work part or full-time,” he said. “They don't meet in four classes Monday through Friday. They meet one day a week for the entire day. It is for processing in oil refineries."
While an economy in recession may be great for student enrollments, it is a two-sided coin for colleges. The other side is state funding cuts.
"Our state funding received a 5 percent cut to start the year, and it looks like we are about to receive another 5 percent cut," Kelly said. "Our budget is mainly in people, so it is affecting us because enrollment is at a record level, but funding is going down.”
The cuts for the current school year come on the heels of similar cuts last year.
"We have not had to lay off any instructors," he said. "We have had an across-the-board pay cut for the administration and then there has been an increase in work load for certain parts of our academic faculty. We are basically being asked to teach a lot more with a lot less."
Companies going out of business or downsizing is hurting programs in some areas, however.
Jerry Malone, the Workforce Center Director for Southwest Mississippi Community College, said that compared to last year, the enrollment in the Workforce program is down a little from the past couple of years.
"Our highest enrollment was for the 2007-08 school year," Malone said. "Last year was down a little. This year is about level with last year."
The Workforce program at SMCC is about evenly divided between students who being trained in a new field by the current employers and unemployed or underemployed students who are learning new skills so they can apply for better jobs.
"We have had several of our companies go out of business or downsize," Malone said. "One of those was Georgia-Pacific. We did a significant amount of training for them. Air Cruisers just announced that it will shut down the largest part of their operation this fall. They are one of our larger Workforce partners."
"We are planning for the economy to be worse into 2011," Kelly said. "We are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. I am usually the half-full glass guy, but in this case I guess you have to be a realist."
Added Kelley-Winders: "This recession will not last forever, and when it ends, everything points to South Mississippi having a better trained and better prepared work force than before."
Royce Armstrong may be reached at rarmstrong@hughes.net or by telephone at (601) 766-9624.