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The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

Villagómez reports a potential for increase in student enrollment

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Vice President of Academic Affairs, María Villagómez, reports on this fall’s credit enrollment at the Board of Trustees meeting held on Thursday, Sept. 15.

The Board of Trustees is City College’s governing body that represents the people of the district.

Villagómez begins her presentation by showing a slight decrease of -.9% in this fall’s headcount of credit enrollments when comparing it to fall 2021.

In Fall 2021 there were 12,194 students and this semester there are 12,079 students.

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“This actually constitutes 115 students only when we’re looking at headcount,” Villagómez said. “Essentially flat almost.”

She then moves forward by presenting the cumulative units that show a .1% increase from the fall 2021 semester to the current semester.  

This semester there are 132 more cumulative units than in fall 2021 when there were 119,614 cumulative units.

Due to students still enrolling in classes and many late start classes that have yet to begin, Villagómez expects that by the end of this semester there will be an increase of full-time equivalent students and cumulative units headcount.

Her last slide includes a bar graph of the past four fall semesters comparing the full time equivalent students or FTES. 

“While we are still declining in enrollment since the pandemic hit,” Villagómez said. “We are not declining at an accelerating rate but rather at a decelerating rate, which is great for us.”

The graph shows a 2.8% drop in the amount of full time students when comparing fall 2021 to the current semester. This is a total of 122 fewer students between both semesters.

“Since 2009 and 2010, we have had a 43% drop in student enrollment, but we have almost tripled the number of degrees and more than doubled the number of certificates,” said Marsha Croninger, board member. “I think that’s something we as a college should be very very proud of.”

The Board of Trustees will reconvene on Thursday, Oct. 20. 

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