Local Community College Enrollment Rising In Recent Years – KXL

Community colleges in the Portland and Southwest Washington area are featuring an uptick in enrollment numbers.

“Community colleges across the country as well as here in our metro area (have) been seeing enrollment slowly increase,” Ryan Clark, Associate VP of Enrollment Management & Student Success at Portland Community College, said.

The success lies in a number of factors that these community colleges share, especially post-pandemic.

“We’ve seen increased numbers of international students and (dual enrollment) students,” Dr. Cecilia Martin, Clark College’s Associate Vice President of Planning and Effectiveness, said.

“One of the other increases that we’ve seen is recently is in the number of our first-generation students,” Martin continued.

John Hamblin, Mount Hood Community College’s Vice President of Student Development, says the numbers go beyond the classroom and into the student’s everyday lives.

“20,000 students utilized our (food) pantry services last year,” Hamblin said. “That’s more students than we have.”

“We’re getting repeat visits from these students, so we know that we’re actually having an impact on food insecurity,” Hamblin continued.

Dr. Tim Cook, Clackamas Community College’s president, even ran 50 days to help promote the food insecurity going on at all Oregon community colleges.

“Several years ago, I got really concerned about the number of students that were struggling with food and housing insecurity,” Cook said.

Other factors for recent enrollment trends include community colleges offering a flexible schedule, a lower budget in costs, and smaller classes sizes so professors can work more closely with students.