West Hills College begins fall semester with jump in full-time enrollments

The enrollment was up, reversing a trend in recent years, but the big news was that the number of full time students grew by 32 percent. The district reported 2,366 full-time students were enrolled this fall, compared to 1,788 last fall, a significant increase.

“Not only do we have a few more students taking classes this year,” said Vice Chancellor of Academic and Information Services/Registrar Keith Stearns, “but our students are taking more classes now and have the opportunity to achieve their educational goals sooner.”

Stearns said the college was able to expand the class schedule for both summer and fall because of the passage of Proposition 30 last year, in which voters increased the budget for community colleges, but also because the State of California saw an increase in revenues due to a much improved economy this past year.

The West Hills Community College District – which has two colleges within its boundaries, at Coalinga and Lemoore, as well as the North District Center (NDC) in Firebaugh – reported that 5,751 students were enrolled in classrooms and online, up 2.5 percent  from 5,495 when the fall semester began last year.

The number of part-time students is down 10 percent, as the result of more students enrolling full-time, Stearns said. This meets a goal set by the college to increase retention by streamlining the path to certificates, degrees, and transfer credits.

In a recent State of the District address held at the Lemoore campus, Chancellor Frank Gornick congratulated staff and faculty for a job well done.  “You’ve been engaged in a relentless pursuit of student success for the past three years. We’ve been having courageous conversations on the subject,” he said, “and the result has been more priority registration options for students and the implementation of educational plans for individual students so they map out their first two years of college before they begin.”  Gornick pointed to the fact that 73 percent of the students in the district now submit an educational plan. “In 2005, the exact same percent came to college without an educational plan. We have accomplished a complete flip, and this is significant; in fact, it’s unheard of.”