CCC, ENMU enrollments decline between 2014, 2021

Like colleges and universities all over the nation, Clovis Community College and Eastern New Mexico University have been facing declining enrollments.

Between Fall 2014 and Fall 2021, CCC saw full-time equivalent student enrollment drop by nearly 37%, from 3,744 students to 2,362 in 2021, a chart on the New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) website shows. The largest drop occurred between 2019 and 2020, the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic peaked, when CCC’s student enrollment dropped by 763 students. CCC’s student population shrank from 3,247 in 2019 to 2,484 in 2020, a decrease of more than 23%.

ENMU, meanwhile saw enrollment at its main campus in Portales decline by more than 19.1% from Fall 2015 to Fall 2022, from 6,279 students to 5,078, the HED chart shows. Between 2019 and 2020, ENMU’s student population fell by 401 students, or nearly 7%, from 5,783 students in 2019 to 5,382 in 2020.

From Spring 2020 to Spring 2022, New Mexico saw college enrollments drop from 100,291 to 85,656, according to a chart compiled by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a Herndon, Va.-based nonprofit that provides educational reporting, data exchange and other research students to higher-education organizations and others with a stake in higher education, according to its website.

The largest single-year percentage drop was in two-year public colleges like CCC. Between Spring 2020 and Spring 2021. The student population shrank by 16.9%, from 46,381 to 38,535, according to the clearinghouse chart.

Over the same period, enrollment in state four-year public institutions, like ENMU, dropped by 6.9%, from 52,244 students to 48,615, the clearinghouse chart shows.

Between 2021 and 2022, national college enrollment dropped by 662,000 student or 4.7%, continuing a pattern of decline, a May 26 story in the New York Times stated, citing National Student Clearinghouse data.

“Even before the pandemic, though, college enrollment had been dropping nationally, with institutions of higher learning buffeted by demographic changes as the number of college-age students leveled off,” the New York Times story stated, “as well as questions about student debt. A highly polarizing immigration debate also drove away international students.”

Robin Kuykendall, CCC’s associate vice president of enrollment management and student affairs, said in an email, “The decline in enrollment at CCC mirrors that of the national decline in enrollment. Much of this is due to declines in high school graduates, economic factors, etc. The COVID pandemic exacerbated the decade-long decline that higher education institutions have faced across the nation and CCC is one of the institutions that has faced these challenges.”

To address the issue, Kuykendall wrote, the college has established a strategic enrollment management plan, with contributions from students, college stakeholders and the community.

Elements of the plan, she wrote, include “more event opportunities to get prospective students on campus to see what CCC has to offer,” including weekly tours of up-to-date facilities in degree and certificate programs that include nursing, radiologic technology, physical therapist assistant, automotive, wind energy, cosmetology and computer information systems.

“When people can visualize themselves in these programs, the goal of getting their degree feels more attainable,” Kuykendall wrote.

Other programs, she said, include opportunities to complete all pre-requisite classes for the nursing program in a single semester, including coaching and tutoring sessions.

The college has also launched a program called Proactive Academic Advising, in which advisers build relationships with students, along with offering acadmic advice.

The enhanced teamwork between adviser and student, Kuykendall wrote, helps “ensure retention and student success.”

The state’s new Opportunity Scholarship program, along with state and federal student aid options help alleviate students’ cost concerns, Kuykendall wrote.

“We don’t want our students to have to get student loans, so we work with students on every financial aid opportunity we can,” she said.

CCC’s Textbook Affordability Package ties textbook fees directly to tuition when they register for classes, which “allows students to stop by the bookstore and pick up their books without any additional costs,” Kuykendall wrote.

ENMU officials declined to respond to questions submitted by email before The News deadline on Friday, but minutes of previous ENMU Board of Regents meetings indicate that ENMU officials are actively recruiting students.

Jeff Long, ENMU’s vice president of student affairs, reported to the regents in February that recruiting activities were being conducted at athletic and academic events on campus, and ENMU representatives were scheduling lunches with high school counselors and arranging classroom visits on high school campuses to conduct recruiting.

Long reported that recruiting efforts would tie in with athletic and academic events. Recruitment efforts involving high school counselor lunches continue, and Long said he was hopeful that, with mask mandates being lifted, it would be possible to get into more schools.

Long said in February that recruitment numbers were promising. Applications from 110 potential students had been accepted since January, Long reported, and applications, acceptances, prospects and inquiries were ‘trending in the right direction.”

Social media platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter were also being used for recruitment, Cody Spitz, director of enrollment services, said during the February regents meeting.

Spitz said social media were used for announcement of recruiting locations. Social media also hosted “hash-tagged” publications that potential students could follow for more information. In addition, Spitz said, Enrollment Services had been working with ENMU’s Communications services and the national RNL Marketing firm on recruiting efforts.

John Houser, associate vice president of communications and marketing, commented at the February meeting that recruitment efforts also used the Instagram and Google Ads platforms to reach transfer, international and graduate students.

At a March regents meeting, Jamie Laurenz, ENMU vice president of academic affairs, said several campus events hosting high school students would include recruitment activities. Those events included Boys State and Girls State, the Teen Community Emergency Response Basic Training Camp, ENMU Choir Camp, the Spanish Immersion Institute.

A news release on HED’s website stated that factors in New Mexico’s decline in college students include declining birth rates that have shrunk numbers of high school graduates, an increase in part-time working adult students that has led to a drop in full-time students, and rising college costs.

“The average age of a college student in New Mexico is 26 and over 40 percent of students attend part-time due to work, family obligations, and other factors,” the news release stated.   

Rising college costs have prompted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s moves to restore the state’s Lottery Scholarship program and launch the Opportunity Scholarship program that provides tuition-free college to returning adult learners, part-time students, those seeking career training certificates, and those who want to attend school year-round, the news release stated.