Portland Community College Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Lesson from the Edge

We can accomplish anything But not alone

Lesson from the Edge-We can accomplish anything, But not alone image

Chris Chairsell

Vice President Academic and Student Affairs

Template Design: Jim Johnstone, Curriculum Support Services

Welcome to the start of Academic Year 2006/07!! I thought that these statistics and facts might be of interest to you as you prepare to meet our students. Another communication will follow shortly providing you with up-to-date information about what is happening in Academic and Student Affairs at PCC.

Did You Know:

  • PCC students are more diverse than our communities
  • 40% of PCC’s credit FTE represent students who are attending for the very first time
  • Approximately 20% of our credit students enroll in combined DL and campus courses or DL courses only
  • There are 23,000 (Winter 2006) credit students and the average age is 29 years old
  • Lower Division Transfer enrollments make up 58% of PCC’s credit FTE
  • Professional Technical Program enrollments make up 30% of PCC’s credit FTE
  • There are 18,000 (Fall 2005) noncredit students
  • The average age of ABE, high school equivalency, ESL students is 32 years old
  • The average age of Community/Continuing Education students is 43 years old
  • In 2020, our community will grow to an approximate population of 2,050,000 residents
    22% of that 2020 population (369,000) will be new residents
  • In 2020, almost 400,000 residents will have no memory of life and work “before the Internet”

For more information, check out the Institutional Effectiveness website.

Every Fall Semester, Beloit College publishes a Mindset List of incoming freshmen. It is a wonderful tool to remind ourselves that our younger students have very different references and benchmarks to base their lives around. The following are a few items from that list for the incoming freshman – Class of 2009 – born in 1987. For a more complete list – go to www.beloit.edu/mindset/

  1. Al-Qaida has always existed with Osama bin Laden at its head.
  2. The Starship Enterprise has always looked dated.
  3. American Motors has never existed.
  4. “Baby M” could be a classmate.
  5. Libraries have always been the best centers for computer technology and access to good software.
  6. Researchers have always been looking for stem cells.
  7. They never saw the shuttle Challenger fly.
  8. Tom Landry never coached the Cowboys.
  9. “Whatever” is not part of a question but an expression of sullen rebuke.
  10. They have always been challenged to distinguish between news and entertainment.

My favorites from the Mindset List in years past:

  1. Don’t tell them that they sound like a broken record – they probably have never heard one.
  2. They have never lost anything in shag carpeting!!!!!

Finally, a few from PCC’s Academic and Student Affairs (everyone has to get into this game):

  1. They think the Rolling Stones write commercial jingles.
  2. There has always been 78 TV channels to choose from.
  3. Inagodadavida has always been elevator music.
  4. College registration has always been on-line.

Thanks Laura Massey, Kristen Watkins, Shannan McGaha, and Rick Aman!!

Look for more “Lessons from the Edge” in the months to come