College enrollments on uptick in region

Enrollment at HCC up 20 percent

Jobless coal miners try college

The Daily Independent
September 21, 2003

College enrollments on uptick in region

ASHLAND More people are going to college in Northeastern Kentucky this fall.

Enrollments are up from this time last year, reaching record numbers at Ashland Community and Technical College and showing slight gains at Morehead State University.

The increase shows that even in the face of increased competition among post-secondary institutions, ACTC continues to offer a good education for the money, said President Greg Adkins.

"There is a renewed awareness in the five-county service area of the valuable programs we have at ACTC," he said.

Many of the college's programs are filled to capacity, he said. "We think this is an indication of understanding of the value of education."

The count at ACTC, released late last week, reached 3,825.

That met ACTC's goal of a 5-percent increase, said dean of student affairs Willie McCullough. Last fall's enrollment was 3,639.

Morehead State's estimated enrollment of 9,400 to 9,450 is a little more than half a percent more than last year's said Provost Michael Moore.

Particularly significant is that all MSU's extended campus centers, including the one in Ashland, showed increased enrollment, Moore said.

That suggests an increase in the number of non-traditional students, who are the ones targeted by the centers, he said.

Non-traditional students are those older than the typical college ages of 18-22 and students who are returning to school from the work force.

More precise figures will be calculated around Nov. 1 when the deadline passes to add and drop classes, he said.

This fall's modest increase, following one of the largest enrollment spikes ever last fall have put some courses at near capacity, especially lab courses, he said.

At ACTC, the only way enrollment can increase at the rate of the past few years is to add capacity, and that means more state money Adkins said.

"It's going to take additional resources for us to continue to grow at the rate of the past two years," he said. "We're going to have to deal with the General Assembly."

Hopefully, the enrollment figures will be persuasive as state lawmakers craft upcoming education budgets, he said. "We've had cuts. We need to have those cuts restored and then some."

Enrollment in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System as a whole grew 4.8 percent from fall 2002, according to a KCTCS spokesman.

Final, official enrollment figures will be reported in November. According to KCTCS, those numbers have exceeded the September estimates in each of the past two years.

In Ohio, enrollment figures at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth were still being finalized and were scheduled for release Monday, said registrar Steve Midkiff.

The Gleaner
September 18, 2003

Enrollment at HCC up 20 percent

It's deja vu for Henderson Community College as the 43-year-old school anticipates doing what it did last fall, but doing it even better.

In fall 2002 HCC set an enrollment record with an all-time registration high of 1,598 students.

This fall the college is projecting a Nov. 1 campus headcount of 1,920 students -- a 20.1 percent increase over last fall. There's also an anticipated 10.5 percent increase in the full-time-equivalent (FTE) student numbers, forecasted to be about 871 or higher.

The enrollment growth comes at a time when, logically, registrations could be expected to decline because HCC and other schools making up the Kentucky Community and Technical College System raised tuition rates by 23 percent in order to compensate for state budget cuts and maintain program standards.

"We're very pleased," said HCC President Patrick Lake, noting that while KCTCS as a whole is toppling its previous enrollment records, the local center for higher education "is ahead of the growth in the system."

KCTCS reports an enrollment estimate of 71,061 for the 2003 fall semester, a 4.8 percent increase over last fall. Lake said that the local FTE percentage increase was also substantially higher than that of the overall system, which saw a 2.8 percent FTE increase.

Lake said the school here has increased enrollment by 87 percent in the last five years. "That growth is just phenomenal." KCTCS has increased enrollment by 56 percent since fall, 1998.

Lake said that HCC, like other community and technical colleges in the state, has made a concentrated effort in recent years to boost enrollment. "We've attempted to reach out to more people and inform them about what we have here and the development of new programs," he said, adding that, "We've tried to be responsive to the needs (of the school's service area) and we'll continue to do so."

The spiraling enrollment represents growth "across the board," Lake said, explaining that increases include traditional and non-traditional students, and higher numbers registered in both on-campus and off-campus courses.

Lake said exact enrollment figures for this semester won't be in hand until Nov. 1 when registrations have closed for bi-term classes and customized training programs, but it's possible to project totals because it's already known how many individuals expect to be participating in those upcoming classes.

The school president pointed out that higher enrollment figures can result in increased state funding for growing schools. "We stand to gain new money if there's new (state) money to gain," he said.

Lake said the enrollment explosion would justify the hiring of additional faculty, "But we don't have the money to hire new people. Some classes are bigger...We're accommodating students as well as we can."

Because HCC's service area is smaller than that of most schools in the KCTCS system and because there are 27 other post-secondary institutions within a 75-mile radius, Lake said it probably would be "unrealistic" to expect dramatic enrollment jumps on a continuing basis.

But if it happens, he laughed, "We won't be unhappy."

The Messenger
September 17, 2003

Jobless coal miners try college

In the late 1970s - when coal mines were booming in and around Hopkins County - good-paying jobs were plentiful for people who had only a high school education.

Times have changed.

That's become apparent to the 270 miners who lost their jobs when Lodestar and Hopkins County Coal recently closed.

"The job market's a little different now than it was in the late '70s," said David Mooney, 47, who worked at Lodestar for nearly 23 years. "Then, if you had a high school education, you could get a job pretty much anywhere. Now, if you don't have a skill or some college education, you just can't qualify. The companies want people with some college background."

Mooney has enrolled in the agricultural technology program at Madisonville Community College with financial help from the federal Workforce Investment Act program, offered locally through JobNet.

"I was making like $17.52 an hour and I just can't go back to making $7 or $8 an hour," he said. "My best chance is through the program now. I have a chance to get a two-year associate's degree. That's the reason I signed up for it. It's like getting a second chance for my education."

He hopes to eventually earn a bachelor's degree and work for the government.

JobNet has helped laid-off miners obtain job training to become truck drivers and freight train conductors as well as enter college for longer-term training. Others have received assistance with resumes and their job search, as well as career counseling. The JobNet program, which calls itself "a one-stop facility," works in conjunction with the Department of Employment Services and other agencies.

"Most of these guys have been in the mines all their lives," said JobNet Workforce Services Specialist James Pfeffer. "A lot of them I talk to, this has been their only job right out of high school. They're mostly 45 to 55. It's really a traumatic time for them. We're able to help them get skills to apply to today's labor market."

Training dollars are still available for workers who have been laid off, Pfeffer said, adding that he wants to get the word out to them.

"It's interesting that they're making a complete change from what they had been doing, coal mining all their lives," he said. "They have the opportunity now to select a career field they may have wanted to be in."

William I. Smith, 52, of Madisonville, has applied to the LPN and RN programs at MCC. He's taking general education courses this semester as he waits to hear whether he's been admitted for the spring semester.

"Through the years, I've worked for the mines in mine rescue and as a mine emergency technician," Smith said. "Years ago, I had been an emergency medical technician and had some emergency health care experience. Also, I felt like I'd mined for several years and thought at this point in time I might be interested in doing something that had a little more community value overall."

He was a miner for about 26 years and was laid off from Hopkins County Coal.

"We were given notice 60 days before the mines shut down with some hopes that circumstances would change and it would stay open," Smith said. "We pretty much knew, at least for the last 30 days before it shut down that there was little hope they would avoid it.

"Pretty much all surface mining in western Kentucky, it's been on the slide for a long time," he said. "I had heard about the JobNet and the WIA program and thought this might be a good time to look into a change and try to get some additional training."

WIA will pay most of his college expenses for two years.

"At this stage of the game, I could never have considered trying to make this large of a commitment without a program like this," he said. "It would have been impossible to consider."

Jeff Eli, 47, of Madisonville, lost his job with Lodestar after 24 years with the company. He applied at area factories - and a few coal mines - but didn't hear back from anyone.

"I sent resumes in," he said. "I always thought if I ever got to this point, I would try to get out of the mines. Total, I'd been in the mines 28 years. I have some mechanical and electrical background and computer skills."

Eli then learned he needed to take the Test of Adult Basic Education before getting a factory job. He went to Adult Centers of Educational Excellence at Parkway Plaza Mall, then scored above average on the test. During a job fair at MCC, he learned about railroad conductor training from Pfeffer at the JobNet booth.

After talking to a representative of the AMDG Freight Conductor Training program in Cincinnati, Ohio, he drove there the next day.

"At this point, I really needed to find something," Eli said. The WIA program paid nearly all of his $4,250 training cost.

He passed the training, and is now working for CSX, stationed in Evansville, Ind.

"We're on a 12-week on-the-job training," he said. "Then we take a test, and if we pass, we're promoted to conductor and our pay goes up."

During the training period, Eli has worked with the actual conductors and engineers. He said they have been very helpful.

"I worked for 28 years and I was laid off one time, that was during the 1978 strike," Eli said. "That was the only time I was laid off in all that time until now. For somebody my age to go out there and all of a sudden have to find a job ... this hits you in the face and you're out there competing with the people coming out of high school and college now. It's a lot different world than when I came out of high school. You've got small kids in preschool and grade school who can work computers. I'm hearing now that a lot of these kids are getting algebra in grade school. It was really hard for me to try to relearn some of this stuff and learn some of it for the first time.

"It was definitely an experience I didn't expect at this time in my life," he said. "I was looking toward retirement."