East side (Verde Valley) enrollment using credit hours remains about even; out-of-County shows decline
Yavapai Community College analyzed spring enrollment trends over the past four years of credits taken by students using zip codes and reported the results of the analysis at the March Governing Board meeting. The analysis included students taking face-to-face classes and those taking classes on-line. It found that on the west side of the County there was a drop of over 4,000 student credit hours in the last four years (36,538 down to 32,345).
However, enrollment of students on the east side of the County (Sedona, Cottonwood, Camp Verde, et. al.) using credit hours as the measure remained relatively constant (8,897 up to 8,938).
Out-of-County students who take most classes on-line also showed a decline (5,413 credit hours down to 5,350).
Representative Paul Chevalier suggested that with additional marketing effort enrollment could be increased on the east side of the County and the Community College could draw more out-of-County students. The Vice President of Instruction & Student Development, Dr. Ron Liss, agreed.
It should be noted that although Dr. Liss did not have the exact number available, during an interview with the Blog he stated that he believed that students taking face-to-face classes had declined on the east side of the County while enrollment in on-line classes had increased.