This content was published: December 29, 1999. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC Fall Term Enrollment Reaches Highest Level in College History
Photos and Story by James Hill
Portland Community College, the largest post-secondary school in the state, crunched enrollment numbers for the final week of fall term and concluded that enrollment reached record levels fall term. The report from the Institutional Research office shows that at the end of the 12th week of fall term, 42,748 students were enrolled at Portland Community College, a jump of 8.9 percent from last year at the same time. The college also experienced a 5.2 percent hike in full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollments. FTE is calculated by adding full- and part-time enrollments together to make a full-time equivalent student.
Portland Community College has been on a steady growth curve for the last several years after a flattening of enrollments in the mid-90s. The only other time in PCC history that fall term reached the 40,000 student mark was in 1989 when 40,189 students registered for fall classes.
College officials speculate that a number of factors are at work. First, the demographics point to a boomlet of younger age students entering college. A report, "A Back to School Special Report on the Baby Boom Echo — No End in Sight," unveiled by President Clinton and Education Secretary Richard Riley in August, predicts that college and university enrollment will jump 10 percent to 1.5 million students nationwide in the next decade. In addition, the Portland metro area has experienced a significant increase in population, particularly in Washington County — the western edge of PCC’s district — where residents in Oregon’s "silicon forest" have seen a 31 percent jump in population in the last decade.
Other factors that could attribute to the jump in enrollment include the rising cost of college. At $38 per credit hour, Portland Community College and other community colleges across the country are an affordable post-secondary choice for an increasing number of students.
Plus, the ease of registration and taking classes has been augmented with online registration and online courses. Portland Community College is the first community college in the state to implement online registration, which began this fall. In addition to registering online, students can now take courses via the computer. These offerings have
increased from a handful of courses in the mid-90s, to approximately 90 classes in a wide variety of subjects, including associate degree options.
The Dec. 13 issue of Community College Week ranks Portland Community College at the 14th largest community college in the nation, using 1997-98 U.S. Dept. of Education data, which is the latest academic year for which numbers are available. Miami-Dade is ranked number one. West of the Mississippi, PCC ranks eighth largest community college. Total enrollment of PCC credit students, based on fall term fourth week figures, is reported at 23,782.
Portland Community College maintains three comprehensive campuses, Cascade, Rock Creek and Sylvania, four multi-service training centers, and offers classes at 150 locations throughout its 1,500-square-mile district. The Cascade Campus is located at 705 N. Killingsworth in Portland. Rock Creek Campus can be found between Beaverton and Hillsboro at 17705 N.W. Springville Road. The Sylvania Campus is located at 12000 S.W. 49th Ave. in Portland.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »