NC community colleges see enrollment surge

When Andrew McCarthy graduated from his New Jersey high school in 2009, he hoped to attend UNC-CH.

But faced with a large tuition price tag as an out-of-state student, he elected to spend his first two years at a community college in New Jersey instead.

“Initially, it was just for financial reasons,” he said. “It wasn’t in the cards coming out of high school.”

McCarthy, a junior English major, transferred this year to the University.

Other students in North Carolina have experienced similar plights and decided to start out at community college.

N.C. legislators have been supportive of this trend, promoting the N.C. Community College System as a viable option for students concerned about the rising cost of tuition.

Faced with a shrinking pool of funds to give state higher education, the N.C. General Assembly is looking into ways to facilitate students’ transition from community college to a four-year institution.

“It would be tremendous cost savings,” said Rep. Marvin Lucas, D-Cumberland. “It helps the students in terms of tuition, but it helps us in terms of fees paid (per student).”

Legislators are developing a “seamless transition” initiative that will allow the credit hours students earn at community college to transfer easily to UNC-system schools.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Lucas said. “We’re looking at a five to 10 year timetable. But if it happens faster, that would be great.”

To cope with a $414 million state budget cut to the system enacted in July, many of the system’s universities have voted to raise tuition, causing concern about students’ ability to pay.

“The universities took a big hit this year financially,” said Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange. “Any time we can think of a creative solution to help students, that’s a good thing.”

But at schools like East Carolina University, administrators are concerned that the freshman class might shrink if more students decide to initially enroll in community college.

Anthony Britt, director of admissions at ECU, said while the university’s application pool has remained steady so far, he thinks financial reasons are causing more students to start at a community college rather than spending all four years at a traditional school.

About 25 percent of UNC-CH’s transfer class came from state community colleges, said Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions.

He said he doesn’t expect the University’s freshman class to shrink, even though legislators are pushing the community college option.

“I don’t think the larger share of students who choose to go to Carolina would go to community college for their first two years,” he said. “But it’s a good way to go for a lot of students.”

The state’s community colleges experienced a 28 percent increase in enrollment from 2007 to 2010, Megen Hoenk, a spokeswoman for the Community College System, wrote in an email.

But after receiving a state funding cut of 10.7 percent, community college administrators are concerned about being able to handle more growth.

Armah Shiancoe, enrollment specialist at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, said the college has limited its course offerings as a result of the cut.

He is concerned that if enrollment numbers continue to grow, the school might have a hard time accommodating the growth.

Despite these concerns, Lucas said he still hopes the initiative will be a success.

“It’s ambitious, but I think it can be done,” he said. “It seems like a no-brainer idea to do this.”

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