Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

As budgets tighten, PCC’s enrollment keeps growing

Photos and story by James Hill

For the 14th straight term, Portland Community College’s student population has grown despite a tighter budget future.

During winter term, PCC grew by 5 percent in total headcount to 43,019 students (a gain of 2,030 people) and by 5.2 percent in full-time equivalent students (FTE) –  a surge of approximately 449 FTE to a total of 9,031 for the term. The enrollment figures reflect the number of students taking classes for that specific term. These numbers cannot be added to other terms’ totals to get an overall enrollment number, as many students who are enrolled throughout the year would be counted more than once. FTE is the total number of full- and part-time students added up to calculate one full-time student.

“During the last two years our enrollment has grown by more than 30 percent, which represents more than 7,000 additional full-time equivalent students who are coming to us for education, training and lifelong learning,” said District President Preston Pulliams. “I am so appreciative of the amazing work our staff and faculty are doing to support the students.”

The official enrollment statistics released during the fourth week of the term comes as the budgeting process in Salem officially begins. This is important to PCC because 42 percent of its general fund budget comes from the state.

Every other year, the governor of Oregon proposes a budget for the coming two years, or biennium. This year, with John Kitzhaber taking over the governorship, and facing a $3.5 billion shortfall for 2011-13, his proposed budget included a total of $410 million for Oregon’s 17 community colleges. To put that in perspective, the budget for the community colleges was $500 million just a few years ago. That dropped to $450 million in the middle of the recession, then down to about $417 million currently, which means that all community colleges are serving a lot more students with less state funding.

“Even as state funding has declined, we continue to look for new ways to improve our student services and instruction,” added Pulliams, who is touring the PCC district to host budget forums with staff, faculty and students during winter term. “The recently launched Grad Plan, which will enable students and advisors to track movement toward degree completion, and the progress we are making on assessment of student learning, are just two examples of the innovation and continuous improvement that are integral to PCC’s culture of service to students.”

To help serve the additional students, the PCC Foundation is in its third, and final, year of the Miller Foundation’s Scholarship Challenge where the college has an opportunity to make it easier for hundreds of students to reach their educational goals via scholarships. The Foundation has about $71,000 left to raise before March 31 in order to earn $320,000 in additional scholarship funding through Miller.

To read more about the Miller Challenge, visit: www.pcc.edu/foundation/events/miller-challenge

In the next step, the Legislature’s budget-writing Ways & Means Committee, and its various sub-committees, debates the proposed budgets for each state agency. That process takes many months. It also usually hinges on the quarterly revenue forecast, which will be presented by the state economists in May. The final decision generally is reached around June.

By campus, here is how winter term enrollment has unfolded across the district:

Rock Creek Campus (17705 N.W. Springville Road) – Credit students increased by 5.8 percent and total headcount by 8.3 percent.

Cascade Campus (705 N. Killingsworth St.) – It grew by 2.4 percent in FTE and 7.2 percent in overall headcount.

Southeast Center (2305 S.E. 82nd and Division) – The center’s core enrollment increase by 4.5 percent.

Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.) – It experienced a 3.3-percent increase in total student enrollment and 2.9 percent growth in its FTE.