Lake Land Addressing Drop in Summer Enrollment

Lake Land College is working to address a drop in summer enrollment.

The college's Vice President for Student Services Tina Stovall said Lake Land's summer enrollment decrease is similar to what's being seen at other community colleges in Illinois.

As to the reasons, Stovall said one is that enrollment levels are returning to levels seen before the Great Recession. She said college enrollment skyrocketed in 2009, 2010 and 2011 when the recession forced a number of people into the unemployment lines. Many of those people took advantage of Dislocated Worker Programs at Lake Land in an effort to make themselves more marketable. Another reason is that the recession meant less money for families, so students turned to more affordable community colleges like Lake Land for their post-secondary education.

As the recession has eased, so has the amount of Dislocated Worker funds and that lack of funds has slowed enrollment. For those doing better since the worst days of the recession, they could be looking at four-year schools.

Stovall said of the current enrollment, "We're back to where we were."

Summer figures show 2,651 Lake Land students are taking 11,819 credit hours, a nine percent decrease in hours compared to last year. Stovall said it's an indication that more summer students are taking fewer credit hours.

While headcount enrollment is not as big a factor, there are 172 fewer students enrolled for summer term than in 2013, so the college is focusing on student retention.

The college is also working on ways to help students pay off their student accounts, such as extended deadlines on a pay plan so students can register for fall semester without a hold being placed on their accounts.