City College Enrollment Stabilizes Amid Demographic Shift
Demographics
By Marco Siler-Gonzales
Otto Pippenger and Cassie Ordonio contributed to this story.
Fall semester has begun, and the hemorrhaging of City College’s enrollment finally seems to have tapered, though concerns for many remain on the decreasing demo- graphic of minority students.
Compared to the end of August last year, early enrollment figures from the Office of Admissions and Records indicate the total number of students who signed up for credit classes this year is presently greater than last year’s figures, if only by a few students.
While the total number of sections offered continues to decline, the number of students taking credit classes this fall seems to have held steady at just over 24,000, the same as last year.
Whether enrollment has held steady or not since last year’s tabula- tion of roughly 66,000 will become known once enrollment figures for non-credit students become known.
These figures show enrollment numbers as a stabilization of a downturn that has cost City College some 18 percent of its student body, a loss of roughly 14,000 students and as much as $32 million in state funding.
At roughly $5,000 for each full-time student, the loss of 400 full-time students will cost the school as much as $2 million in state funding.
City College’s budget is currently cushioned against any enrollment drops by the extension of a stabilization fund passed by Sen. Mark Leno in early 2014.
The stability fund (SB 965) provides three additional years of stabilized funding equal to about $20 million, until the 2017-18 school year.
Serving the Majority
In 2014, The U.S. Census Bureau published a report stat- ing the Hispanic demographic in California officially surpassed the caucasian population. Interim Chancellor Susan Lamb said City College has managed to maintain
incoming Latino enrollment, and looks to push the school to become a Latino-serving institute.
Lamb said a bigger challenge of recruiting students comes down to jurisdiction. City College has seen a significant down turn of Filipino students, a population heavily concentrated just over the San Mateo County line in Daly City.
Although it is a convenient commute from Daly City to City College, Lamb said the school is not allowed to advertise enrollment opportunity across district lines.
Who’s Missing
In a demographics report from the California Chancellor’s Office, City College enrollment for Latino students decreased by 14 percent , Asian-Americans are down 21 percent, Africans-Americans are down 21 percent, Pacific Islanders are down 32 percent and Filipinos are down 34 percent from 2009 to 2014.
“ We’re working on partnerships with San Francisco Unified, and we are trying to find new ways to bring people from diverse communities to the college, but this is a really hard time for the college to be dealing with this problem.”
In the City College Colloquy at April 24, Director of Research Rick Fillman presented data examining new arrivals (student’s first time at City College) of credit students by ethnicity from 2000-2015.
Data shows that white and Asian students make up the biggest drop for new arrivals, while newly arrived Latino students have stabilized in the past year.
SFUSD
Fillman’s data (from 2012- 2014) reveals the decreasing number of students from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) attending City College after high school almost parallels the rising percentage of students not enrolling in school at all.
City College employed Interact last spring, a marketing company contracted to advertise student enrollment over the summer and into the fall semester. The marketing team found that most of the public, due to misleading commercial press, thought City College was already in the process of closing down when the accreditation crisis first began.
Due partly to misinformation of the school’s accreditation status, the Diversity Collaborative believes the pattern of decreasing enrollment of high school students at City College, and the increasing numbers of high school graduates who don’t enroll in college at all, are low income and public transportation-dependent. They conclude many of the least mobile students are shut out.
“At the moment in the college’s history we are confronted with mul- tiple challenges,” Board of Trustees President Rafael Mandelman said. “We’re working on partnerships with San Francisco Unified, and we are trying to find new ways to bring people from diverse communities to the college, but this is a really hard time for the college to be dealing with this problem.”
The official enrollment num- bers for the fall 2015 semester have not yet been released. The research department told The Guardsman these figures should be available next week.
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Send an email to: Marco Siler-Gonzales
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