Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

PCC grows by more than 6 percent during winter term

Photos and story by James Hill

The state of Oregon’s largest college is getting bigger.

Portland Community College grew by 6.5 percent in total headcount to 45,822 for winter term, according to fourth week reports – the traditional reporting week for PCC. In the number of full-time credit students (FTE), the college saw a gain of 6.2 percent to 9,590 FTE versus last year at this time. It’s the 18th consecutive term of enrollment growth.

PCC enrolls more than 93,500 students annually.

The student surge has placed further importance on PCC’s Bond Program. Future construction plans for the Cascade Campus were finalized last month through extensive community input; work that will help ease pressure on classroom and study space at the North Portland location. At PCC’s largest campus, Sylvania, the voter-approved bond will add about $52 million worth of construction work that will include a 160,000-square-foot renovation of classroom, laboratory and office spaces, as well as build a new childcare development center and a storage facility for the automotive building.

“Our campus is old and in need of a considerable amount of updates,” said Linda Gerber, president of the Sylvania Campus. “The design and construction work under way at Sylvania protects the community’s public assets, at the same time it will bring the academic and student services needs in line with current standards and practices.”

Bond construction and planning is moving forward at the Southeast Center and Rock Creek Campus locations. The first phase for Rock Creek will see a 30,000-square-foot Building 7 addition that will house various student services, classrooms and study space, and update the central quad. At Southeast, PCC bought an adjoining restaurant, a Kaiser Permanente clinic and the German American Society of Portland building. Eventually, the center will expand and become a comprehensive campus by adding classrooms, science labs, a full service bookstore, a learning center/library and food service facilities.

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

Southeast Center/Extended Learning Campus (2305 S.E. 82nd and Division) – The center’s core credit enrollment increased by 6.9 percent.

Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.) – The biggest PCC campus surged by 7.5-percent in total student enrollment and 7.1 percent in FTE.

Cascade Campus (705 N. Killingsworth St.) – It grew by 7.9 percent in overall headcount and 6.3 percent in credit enrollment.

Rock Creek Campus (17705 N.W. Springville Road) – Rock Creek’s headcount grew by 5.6 percent and the number of credit students rose by 5.4 percent.