Community Colleges and the Economic Downturn

American two-year colleges currently educate more than one-third (6.3 million students) of the 18.2 million total students enrolled in public, private, and for-profit degree-granting institutions. What consequences is the economic downturn having on these two-year colleges, in terms of enrollment, budgetary changes, and employment? Answering that question was the goal of a survey conducted in late February and early March 2009 by the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Campus Computing Project, in partnership with Pearson. The survey included 120 community college presidents and chancellors. In general, presidents report that enrollments at community colleges have significantly increased, despite budget cuts at more than half of the institutions surveyed.

FINDINGS

Enrollment

• More than 92 percent of presidents reported that headcount enrollment at their institution had increased since winter 2008. Almost 75 percent reported enrollment increases of more than 5 percent.
• Seventy-seven percent of presidents reported increases in core academic or degree-transfer programs; 46 percent reported gains of more than 5 percent in these areas.
• The largest program-area enrollment increases were in health care (78 percent reported increases), followed by information technology (67 percent) and business/accounting (59 percent)
• Ninety-three percent of institutions reported an increase in online course enrollment; 71 percent reported enrollment increases of 5 percent or more.

Budgets and Employment

• Almost three-fifths (57 percent) of institutions surveyed reported budget cuts. Seventy percent had budget cuts of 5 percent or more from budget levels in winter 2008.
• The most common areas for budget cuts were in administrative service (56 percent reported cuts in this area), followed by professional development (53 percent) and instructional resources (44 percent).
• More than two-fifths of presidents (44 percent) reported budget increases in the area of student financial aid since winter 2008.
•  Hiring freezes are in effect at 38 percent of institutions; freezes focus on clerical and administrative support staff (48 percent) and senior administrative positions (47 percent).

Response Strategies and Outlook

• More than half of community colleges are foregoing hiring additional academic advisers (53 percent) and career counselors (54 percent), despite increased enrollments.
• Three-quarters of institutions decided against outsourcing information technology and support services to save money, perhaps because of large increases in online course enrollment.
• The most common downturn-response strategies are to increase online courses (70 percent of institutions), increase online programs (66 percent), and to develop new programs to serve as new revenue sources (56 percent).
• Sixty-seven percent of presidents report they “agree” or “strongly agree” that Congress’ economic stimulus plan will benefit their institution.

The entire report and the executive summary may be viewed as PDFs.

DID YOU KNOW?

• More than one-third (34 percent) of community colleges surveyed actually reported budget increases from winter 2008 to winter 2009.
• Only 27 percent of campuses have hiring freezes on full-time faculty in place; just 16 percent have frozen hiring for part-time faculty.
• Almost three-quarters (74 percent) of presidents “agree” or “strongly agree” that they are under pressure from state authorities to develop collaborative programs with other postsecondary institutions.