Gavilan College saw an 18 percent increase in enrollment this
spring and administrators expect students to keep on coming.
Gavilan College saw an 18 percent increase in enrollment this spring and administrators expect students to keep on coming.
With state universities slashing millions from their budgets and acceptance rates at some colleges falling by as much as 10 percent, Gavilan is positioned for expansion, said spokeswoman Jan Bernstein-Chargin. The school’s population, which has risen steadily over the last 15 years except for a three-year decline between 2001 and 2004, exploded this spring and topped out at 19,103 class enrollments – the number of classes registered for – and a head count of 6,721, according to a report presented to Gavilan’s Board of Trustees.
“It’s great in that the higher number of students allows us to offer more variety,” Bernstein-Chargin said. “The challenge is in finding the space.”
To cope with the unprecedented growth, Gavilan is expanding on many fronts. Not only has the college purchased land in Hollister and Coyote Valley to build future campuses, Gavilan expanded its afternoon and evening offerings at its Gilroy campus to accommodate more students. Still, Bernstein-Chargin reminds prospective students to not wait until the last minute to register for fall courses. Registration opens at the end of May and class schedules should be arriving in mailboxes soon, she said.
“We expect there to be a lot more interest and we’ll do what we can to accommodate as many people as possible,” she said. “But, for people who are serious about taking certain courses, don’t wait until August to register.”
When Bernstein-Chargin came to Gavilan eight years ago, she said afternoons were slow on campus and evenings were close to empty. Now the parking lots stay full until late into the afternoons. Thanks to funds from Measure E, a $108 million facilities improvement bond voters approved in 2004 that has funded various projects at Gavilan’s multiple campuses, the Gilroy campus is well-lit after dark, Bernstein-Chargin said, making more students feel safe to take evening courses.
Despite a more crowded campus, the student population growth is a good thing that has snagged more funds from the state, while other districts are in declining enrollment, Bernstein-Chargin said. She attributed Gavilan’s ballooning enrollment to more people seeking job training or perking up their resumes with new language or technology skills.
That’s not to say that Gavilan hasn’t cut its share of costs. But the college avoided layoffs and course cuts by making use of less severe options. For this fiscal year, the college cut about $840,000 between instituting a hiring freeze – leaving several vacant positions unfilled – using funds from a federal grant to propel math, science, engineering and technology programs, and changing the distribution of its semester class schedule.
Whereas every Gilroy household used to receive a 140-page course catalogue before the start of each semester, residents will now receive a two-page mailer with instructions for accessing the schedule of classes online. Students already enrolled will still receive a hard copy of the catalogue, Bernstein-Chargin said.
An additional cost saving and “green” measure is called GoPrint and will tack a five-cent fee onto each piece of paper printed out at the campus library.
“It’s still a very low fee but it’s just enough to make people think twice about printing out their MySpace pages,” Bernstein-Chargin said with a laugh. “We’re hoping it will make everyone more aware of saving energy.”
The college expects this year’s cuts to carry over into similar savings next year.
While the gloomy economy has taken its toll on educational institutions across the country, Gavilan is in an “excellent position to manage its way through any fiscal crisis, even one of historic proportions as the current crisis is being called” thanks to the Board of Trustees’ careful budgeting, according to a report produced by Gavilan President Steven Kinsella.
On a bright note, after opening a newly renovated science wing with the help of Measure E funds, the college turned its sights on the art lecture hall which has been transformed into a music hall, complete with a recording studio. A music production class will be added in the fall, Bernstein-Chargin said.
“Some of these specialized skills are now needed for a lot of different disciplines,” she said. “People who are getting laid off can really benefit from some of our programs to make a career change.”
