By Heather Bremner
Gilroy
– Last year, Elena Vargas attended San Francisco State
University, living in dorms on the urban campus.
Gilroy – Last year, Elena Vargas attended San Francisco State University, living in dorms on the urban campus.
But the Hollister resident wasn’t happy at the large, commuter university, so she transferred to Gavilan College where classes are smaller and tuition is more affordable.
“Some of them (the classes at SFSU) are so much fuller and you don’t get the attention you need,” she said, adding that at Gilroy’s community college she has more contact with her instructors.
The high enrollment at University of California and California State University schools can make it difficult to register for popular courses and lead to situations like Vargas’, which may be the explanation behind Gavilan’s sudden surge in enrollment.
This fall the college saw a 10 percent jump in registration, which includes both the Morgan Hill and Hollister satellite campuses. And since autumn enrollment has remained flat for at least the last five years, with modest increases of maybe 2 percent, the shift from about 4,300 to 4,730 is a big deal.
“We’re handling it,” said Gavilan Spokeswoman Jan Bernstein Chargin, pointing out that the college hired eight new full-time faculty members this year. “We have a lot of full classes. We have a lot of full parking lots.”
College officials don’t have a concrete answer to the inevitable “why,” but they do have a few theories. One is the move from an 18-week to 16-week semester, which gives students an extra two weeks of summer.
That was the first change that popped into John Pruitt’s head when pressed for an answer.
“We’ve moved to a 16-week calendar this year and students have really responded favorably,” said Pruitt, currently serving as the interim vice president of student services.
Pruitt surmises that the shorter semester may be more convenient for a community college population that usually works, often full-time, or has a family at home and is still trying to receive an education. The Gavilan administrator said he can’t say yet whether the influx of students at the UC and CSU level or the high cost of tuition has had an effect, but he does plan on compiling a student survey to find out.
Besides the calendar change, there are areas Pruitt can pinpoint that he thinks may have contributed to the growth. New area high school programs, such as High Step and online offerings, have beefed up enrollment.
With High Step, which Gilroy and Morgan Hill’s Sobrato and Live Oak high schools began offering in the fall, Gavilan instructors teach classes on the school campuses. And San Benito High School in Hollister linked up with Gavilan this year to offer online classes.
Gavilan supplies the instructor to take care of the online content, while a SBHS teacher helps the students stay “motivated and on task” while working, Pruitt said.
Another significant change is the Web site registration the college just launched, which makes it much easier to sign up for classes. The online registration option is just one part of Gavilan’s campaign to improve customer service, a change Pruitt hopes is attracting more students to the campus.
“And we know it’s going to be one of the those things in the competitive market that will set us (apart) from the others,” he said.
Another major segment of the campaign is more outreach, which has consisted of becoming a more significant presence on high school campuses and ensuring that local students know what the college has to offer.
“What we’re doing is we’re trying to go from good to really great,” Pruitt said. “We’re just trying to make sure that we don’t lose anybody through the cracks.”
Heather Bremner covers education for the Dispatch. Reach her at [email protected] or 847-7097.
