×

JCC officials analyze spike in student enrollment

By JORDAN W. PATTERSON

editorial@observertoday.com

JAMESTOWN — Jamestown Community College officials attributed the recent enrollment spike to an institution-wide effort.

Dr. Daniel DeMarte, JCC president, recently announced at a faculty and staff welcome back address that the college’s efforts over the last year had paid off. At a meeting of the Educational Services Committee this week, college officials detailed some of the initiatives that aided in the enrollment increase.

“We have a very good team here of experts,” DeMarte said. “They bring a lot of energy.”

Just recently in July, the college cut or reduced 10 positions as well as not filling or reducing 10 vacant positions The staffing moves were based on enrollment projections that have had a steady decline over recent years. Additionally, the college was attempting to meet a $1 million budget shortfall, which was later successfully met.

At the time of the cuts, Kirk Young, vice president of student affairs, said the college was waiting to see if recent enrollment initiatives would prove successful. But as the school year began in late August, JCC announced that enrollment was higher than projected.

Jamestown is entering the fall semester with a total of 2,500 enrolled students. The total includes 1,861 full-time students, 773 continuing students, 798 first-time students, 163 readmitted students and 127 transfer students.

JCC is above last year’s total student as of the first day of classes by 17.3 full-time equivalent students, a 1.7% increase.

Young and members of the enrollment, marketing and advertising team presented to several trustees about how the college increased enrollment and how they planned on retaining students.

Contributing factors to the overall enrollment bump were increases in total international students, with 55 students from 25 countries; student athletes, with 155 in total; incoming freshmen students, a 12% increase from 2018; and 28 students enrolled in the Workforce Readiness Scholarship program.

“That really is the combined effort of a lot of people,” Young said.

The committee discussed the effort to fill the college’s residence halls, with one that remained completely empty for years. The Jamestown campus filled 95% of its residence halls with 322 students, up from 236 at the start of the 2018 school year. The North County site and the Cattaraugus County campus do not have residence halls.

One specific effort was giving potential students from Pennsylvania the cost of in-state tuition if they elected to live in the residence halls. This program was heavily promoted through target areas in the neighboring state.

Additionally, the college began pushing a parent orientation for public schools at strategic locations throughout Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. These parent orientations were held during the spring, but Young noted that the majority or students in attendance were juniors. In an attempt to reach students in their senior year, Young said parent orientations are going to be held in the fall as well.

At the recent meeting, several board members praised the efforts of the recruiting, enrollment and marketing teams. Young said much of the success was due to DeMarte’s leadership.

“He’s leading the way and the rest of us need to get into line,” Young said.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today