THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510160028
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Quick name the local college with the most students.
If you picked Old Dominion University, you would have been wrong - until this fall.
Tidewater Community College, for years the most populous school in Hampton Roads, lost 1,200 students since last year, while ODU picked up nearly 1,000, vaulting ahead with an enrollment of 17,400.
College enrollment held virtually steady across Virginia this year, with public institutions increasing their numbers 1 percent, state records show. Yet local colleges had among the biggest dips and gains.
For colleges, increased enrollment means more prestige and more tuition money. But it also means more students to teach, a burden at a time of shrinking funding.
TCC, which now enrolls 16,550, lost more students than any other state-supported two- or four-year college in Virginia.
Administrators attributed the decrease partly to their decision to drop course sections with fewer than a dozen or so students.
``Because of financial reasons, we can no longer afford to be running extremely small classes unless they're required for a program,'' said Edward Ianni, TCC's acting dean of instruction. He said TCC had not yet calculated how many sections had been closed this fall.
TCC also halved the number of courses it offers via cable television, from 16 to eight, Ianni said. That meant the college lost about 500 students, but it also saved $45,000, which it plugged back into academics on campus.
Ianni said, ``In the last few years, we've been looking to become more efficient and more effective in our instruction.''
The state report counts every student on each campus. But TCC officials said the numbers overstate the decline because the lost students were primarily part-timers.
The state also estimates enrollment by tallying the total number of credit hours that students take and calculating how many full-time students that would represent. By that measure, TCC's enrollment fell less than 3 percent.
Old Dominion's 5.5 percent enrollment increase was the second-highest among state-supported four-year schools, behind George Mason University's 10.2 percent rise.
Most of ODU's increase came off-campus - at satellite centers in cities such as Virginia Beach and in the Teletechnet program, which beams classes across Virginia.
``We've seen growth in just about every area - more graduate students, more transfers - and that is primarily through Teletechnet,'' said Patricia P. Cavender, assistant vice president for enrollment services. ``We're serving new students that we haven't previously reached.''
Teletechnet added four sites, including Lynchburg and Wallops Island, this fall, said Anne Raymond-Savage, who runs the program. Eastern Shore Community College will be the 21st location when it is hooked up in January.
Norfolk State University scored big gains in its freshman class. The number of first-time freshmen rose from 1,154 to 1,318 - a 14.2 percent increase that dwarfed every other public four-year college except Clinch Valley.
Frank Cool, the admissions director, said more than 150 busloads of high school students touring colleges visited NSU in the past year. Plus, President Harrison B. Wilson has been visiting more local high schools. Cool said NSU is intensifying its focus on Virginia students and reducing the push for out-of-staters. ``That may have paid off some, too,'' he said.
TCC's president, Larry L. Whitworth, said the enrollment numbers statewide should be considered in light of demographic trends. In the past few years, the number of students graduating from high school has bottomed out, but a big increase is expected in the next decade.
``Over the next 15 years, it's straight up,'' Whitworth said. ``We're looking at a 45 percent increase (at TCC). Let's not let people get caught up in the belief that we finally have solved the problem in higher ed . . . and what we're spending on higher education is perfectly fine for right now and the future.'' ILLUSTRATION: Virginian-Pilot graphic
The Ups and Downs of College Enrollment in Virginia.
[Enrollment totals for Virginia College/Universities and Communitiy
Colleges for years 1994 and 1995, state totals.]
For copy of graphic, see microfilm.
by CNB