Over the past week, you have likely heard about the drop in Monroe Community College’s enrollment since our record highs during the recession. The percentage of decrease in our full time equivalent (FTE) enrollment is significant, but it is also explainable.
In part, MCC’s enrollment has declined because community college enrollment runs countercyclical to the economy: when unemployment is high, students come to community colleges seeking the skills needed to find work; when unemployment rates fall, our students find jobs. Our enrollment has also been impacted by demography. The declining number of high school graduates affects the size of our freshman class, and it is also driving more competition from private and public four-year colleges for these prospective students. All of these are external drivers of our enrollment decline. I write today to share an intentional internal driver: policy changes MCC made to promote student success.
The media has made much of our high enrollment in 2010. What they have not reported is how those students actually did after enrolling. Simply put, they did not do well. Almost 50% (47.5%) of the students who enrolled in Fall 2010 did not return in Fall 2011. In real terms, out of every 100 students who started that term, over 47 of them did not continue their education. While many at MCC were excited by our dramatic enrollment growth, others were concerned about student performance.
This concern grew as we dug deeper into the data. Students were not finishing their semesters; the percentage of students completing their courses with a C or better was falling, as were average GPAs. Other indicators were climbing with the enrollment, but not good ones. Our students were accumulating more loan debt, more bad debt, and MCC’s student loan default rate was growing.
The portrait in this data did not reflect our MCC: a college dedicated to student success. Longstanding practices were beginning to have an impact; letting students register well into the second week of classes, enrolling students when they could not demonstrate an ability to pay, automatically issuing students full loan packages without counseling them about future obligations—none of these promoted student success. MCC was not alone in these enrollment practices. When colleges are funded on FTE, they behave in a way that maximizes this funding source. In fact, many community colleges continue similar practices to this day. At MCC, though, we knew something had to change. This is not who we wanted to be.
Beginning in Fall 2011, MCC adopted a set of community college best practices that put student success first. These practices were recommended by a cross-college committee. They included
· Setting a deadline for initial registration a week before classes begin
· Dropping students for nonpayment before the term begins to assure they do not walk away with bad debt
· Establishing a payment plan for students who do not qualify for financial aid
· Increasing financial aid counseling and tools that students can use to understand the impact of student debt
As you might imagine, while these practices are beneficial in promoting student success, they negatively impact enrollment. A review of MCC’s FTE enrollment decline reveals that we lost 8.5% between Fall 2010 and 2011, the initial year these changes went into effect. This is one reason our enrollment decline has outpaced our peers, but we need to remember: it resulted from intentional decision-making focused on student success not some external or internal crisis.
Since implementing these changes in 2011, the indicators that best reflect real institutional success have been trending up at MCC: retention, course completions, GPA, graduation. Also, we have seen decreases in student loan debt and our student cohort default rate. The changes are incremental, not miraculous, and academically underprepared students still struggle. Overall, though, our data tell us that our students are starting each semester with a better chance of completing. Significantly, we have also seen the decline in our FTE enrollment slow markedly since 2011; this year, we are predicting it to be less than 4%.
We take the investment made by our students through their tuition and by our taxpayers seriously. We have a responsibility to provide the greatest value and return for that investment, the most effective learning environment, real opportunity for success. I thank the MCC community for assessing our practices and then making difficult decisions in the name of assuring more students have the opportunity to turn access into success. Their willingness to do so says everything about who we are as a College.
I am old enough to remember listening to radio host Paul Harvey end each show with, “and now you know the rest of the story.” Thank you for letting me share the rest of MCC’s enrollment story with you. My door, email, and phone are always open to talk about this or any other aspect of our College. And as always, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments on the blog.
Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
02/10/2016 |