Gilroy
– Judging by enrollment figures, Gavilan College’s role in the
community seemed questionable back in 2005.
Gilroy – Judging by enrollment figures, Gavilan College’s role in the community seemed questionable back in 2005.
The state had recently upped class fees and, despite a growing community, fewer students were taking courses at the college than in the spring of 2002.
“It was painful at times,” said Steve Kinsella, president of the college. “It’s painful to see how many … students we were actually losing to other areas.”
Yet, within two years, Gavilan has drummed up significant interest its programs, with enrollment reaching a new high this semester of 5,605 students.
“We’ve had tremendous, extraordinary enrollment increases in consecutive semesters,” Kinsella said.
While 4,961 students were taking classes at Gavilan during the spring semester of 2005, the numbers inched up to 5,102 in the fall of that year and 5,127 in the spring of 2006.
Then came a deluge of students, with 5,552 students enrolling for fall 2006 classes and 5,605 students for spring 2007 classes.
The current number of students is 13 percent more than 2005.
The number will be even higher as additional students enroll for “late start” classes in April, said Jan Bernstein-Chargin, spokeswoman for the college.
The jump in student interest has been the result of a concerted effort by the college to connect with the community, she said.
Gavilan implemented a number of practices in the past few years that have made it more visible and accessible to area residents, including Web-based class registration, recruiting at high school fairs, a new advertising campaign and switching from an 18-week to a 16-week course schedule, Bernstein-Chargin said.
The increased enrollment, however, is also presenting the college with challenges, including capacity issues.
“Right now, we are hoping to make better use of our space,” Bernstein-Chargin said.
The increase in students has serendipitously coincided with an influx of money from Measure E – a bond passed by voters in 2004 to fund construction and renovation projects.
The college is using this money to, among other things, take larger lecture-oriented classrooms and split them into multiple discussion-oriented spaces.
However, no construction of new rooms is in the works.
If enrollment continues to rise – and with a burgeoning population and growing awareness of the value of a college education, it will, said Bernstein-Chargin – the Gilroy campus might become subject to overcrowding.
The college will jump that hurdle when it comes to it, she said.
“If we are seeing higher growth than the rest of the system, we might be able to pull funding from schools that didn’t use it,” Bernstein-Chargin said.
Right now, the school is going to focus on how to fit all the new cars into the parking lots.
