Stephanie Toland
Pierce College had one of the highest enrollment figures for Spring 2006 out of the nine Los Angeles Community College District campuses and has grown the most in enrollment compared to the previous spring.
Classes opened Feb. 6 with 329 more students enrolled than in Spring 2005, making Pierce the only L.A. community college with an increase of enrollment.
“Hopefully we’ll be up two to three percent for the year. That’s our goal,” said Robert Garber, Pierce College President.
East L.A. College began the semester with a decrease of 731 students, L.A. Trade Tech with 581 fewer students, Valley College with 401 fewer, Harbor College with 213 fewer, Southwest College with 129 fewer, L.A. City College with 73 fewer and Mission College with 39 fewer students all compared to Spring 2005 figures.
For now Pierce enrollment will change from day-to-day until adds and drops are finalized and all the paperwork involved is processed.
The second week of enrollment filled the college with 16,920 students. A one to one and a half percent increase compared to the same week last year when 16,830 were enrolled, according to Garber.
Pierce offered approximately seven percent more sections of courses this semester, compared to spring last year.
Increasing the number of classes to try and accommodate more students has been their strategy to make Pierce grow also, said Garber.
He believes Pierce’s strong reputation and its interest in serving students are their largest factors that make Pierce grow.
Changes to increase enrollment and pursue programs will continue for the health of the college according to Garber.
“That’s the bases that we grow and develop as an institution but mainly it’s to provide services and support for students,” said Garber.
“We will be looking at that [development] over the next few months, in terms of this is an area where I get to provide some leadership and look at things we might be doing.”
Mike Cornner, Director of Marketing & Public Relations, said Pierce is planning to grow from this week to the next primarily because “Pierce is a darn good choice.”