Kaua‘i Community College enrollment dip

PUHI — The University of Hawai‘i system saw the first enrollment increase in a decade this semester.

UH-Manoa had the biggest increase in enrollment, with a 6% jump over last fall, for a total of 19,098 students.

Meanwhile, enrollment at the state’s community colleges fell 3.2%, with Kaua‘i Community College seeing the biggest drop in enrollment within the system, with a decrease of 8.1%, or 120 students.

Community-college enrollment is decreasing nationwide.

Last spring, while every sector of undergraduate institutions saw a decrease in enrollment in comparison to one year prior, community colleges were hit hard with a nationwide decline of 9.5%, according to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Fall 2021 data is not yet available.

According to KCC Chancellor Joseph Daisy, while fluctuation in enrollment is typical, the pandemic has played a role here.

“Last fall, our enrollment was up 6.4%,” Daisy said Tuesday. “We felt that maybe part of that 6.4% increase were students who came back from the mainland during the height of the pandemic who decided that they were going to take courses here as opposed to returning to the mainland.”

The local economy can also impact enrollment. In the fall of 2020, the tourism industry came to a grinding halt, leaving much of the island without work. Now, with tourism up and running again, some KCC students are returning to work rather than school.

“Employment opportunities do (impact enrollment) because so many of our students attend part-time,” Daisy said. “It’s so expensive to live here that many of them are working two or three jobs.”

For Daisy, enrollment numbers don’t show the full picture, and it is important to look at what the college is doing to retain students. KCC, for example, has programs in place to assist students with a range of needs, not just academic, that may impact their route to a degree.

“We’ve tried to identify creative ways that we can support students in their efforts to remain engaged in coursework,” Daisy said. “We provide a range of counseling and wraparound services for our students to try to assist them. We know that many of our students were impacted with housing and food-security issues, so part of what the system did with a lot of the (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund money) was to make direct awards to students to assist them (fulfilling) basic needs.”

Students like creative-media student Alohi Chun are making it work this year with a combination of virtual and in-person classes.

Chun grew up on Kaua‘i and decided to attend KCC to be near her family and have the flexibility to take care of her almost-4-year-old daughter. Chun said she likes having a blended schedule because it allows her to receive the benefits of face-to-face lessons and take advantage of being able to take online courses from any location.

“Teachers here are very helpful. Since I have a daughter, sometimes I need to leave early or I can’t come to class because she might be sick,” said Chun. “The teachers are very open to helping me. And the counselors, knowing that I have a child, helped by showing me all my options of what I can do and stay here.”

The transition to online classes has been difficult for some students, including Jennifer Escobedo Zegarra, an international student from Peru studying creative media.

“The move to online classes was hard for me in two ways,” Zegarra said. “One way is the language. And the other one is the contact with the people. For me, online classes are not the same.”

Zegarra hopes she can go back to in-person learning next semester but is not letting online classes deter her from getting her degree.

“It’s my goals as a student (and) as a professional that push me to keep going,” Zegarra said.

This story’s headline was updated at 9:01. a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 to properly reflect KCC’s enrollment.

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Laurel Smith, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0424 or lsmith@thegardenisland.com.