Enrollment hits record high

Austin Community College's official enrollment tally for fall 2009 is 40,248 credit students, an increase of more than 12 percent compared with fall 2008, when ACC had 35,798 credit students according to the Public Information and College Marketing Department. The differences in enrollment this year compared to last year has been noticed by ACC'S faculty.

"What was very different was the terrific increase of students this year," said Vice President of Student Success Systems and Support Services, Dr. Kathleen Christensen.

"We began registration a good two months earlier than last year," said Christensen. "We were reaching 100 percent of where we were last year, before classes started, so I would say it is a good thing we did begin registration earlier, because we were able to accommodate the extra 13 percent of students that came in after that."

Another way ACC coped with added number of students was by increasing the number of faculty members employed to maintain a 21 to 1 ratio of student to faculty.

"The biggest concern I have is, the large numbers that came in at the end of registration. I worry those students are so unprepared they won't succeed in this semester, both in terms of retention and doing well as far as grades go. Everyone is concerned about this, and there is talk about eliminating late registration for new students," Associate Professor and Counselor for Student Services, Jorge Lynch said.

Lynch has been counseling students both academically and personally for two and a half years. He has been teaching at ACC for twelve and a half years.

All seven campuses experienced growth compared to fall of 2008. Rio Grande Campus (RGC) grew by sixteen percent, Northridge (NRG) by eleven percent, but South Austin Campus (SAC) increased even more. Last fall SAC had 3,041 credit students and this year has 3,861, an increase of twenty-seven percent.

"Big campuses like NRG, RGC and Riverside were already so close to capacity, so the smaller campuses on the outskirts like Cypress, Pinnacle, and SAC picked up the over flow, which is why you see such huge increases at other campuses..." Lynch said.

"The college has always worked to get the message out, and even before the downturn in the economy, we were seeing enrollment that surpassed projections," said Alexis Patterson, ACC's Media Relations Coordinator, about the increase in enrollment this semester. "The recession, however, shined a spotlight on community colleges, both locally and across the nation, and that certainly contributes to our growth."