With fall registration open, Hancock College hoping to reverse enrollment decline caused by the pandemic

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- With registration for summer and fall classes now open, Allan Hancock College leaders are hoping to reverse a downward trend in enrollment caused by COVID-19.

According to Hancock President/Superintendent Dr. Kevin Walthers, enrollment at the college has dropped a substantial amount over the past year.

"We've seen a really large drop in our student counts," said Walthers. "We've had at least 15 percent of our students that just can't manage the online education."

He attributes the decline to the hardship that distance learning has created for many students, particularly those in disadvantaged communities.

"We're seeing a lot of students and it's our most vulnerable students," said Walthers. "Our students that come from middle or upper-middle class backgrounds, they can manage this, but our low income students, our students that are first generation high school students in many cases, they don't have the means to make this work, so that's where we're seeing this fall off."

Hancock student Yazmine Vargas agreed. The Pioneer Valley graduate has seen students first hand in those environments have trouble with distance learning.

"I do think so because not everyone has the same resources," said Vargas. "Some students they live with so many family members and they can't stay focused in a one bedroom apartment or something like that, so I'm sure it will be helpful for them to come back to campus and have that one on one with the professor and have their own workspace."

She added that remote learning has likely been a difficult period for most of the student body.

"It's very hard to juggle that and work and social life and everything, so I have seen a lot of people just be unmotivated and also taking academic breaks has been a very prominent idea throughout this whole pandemic," said Vargas. "My whole physics group, there was five of us in the group, and all of the girls dropped but me, so I have seen it happen. I've seen mental breakdowns happen to my friends and my classmates. It hasn't been easy at all for anyone truly."

Enrollment at community colleges across the nation is down significantly.

At Santa Barbara City College, enrollment is down by about 10 percent. Cuesta College is experiencing a similar drop off.

Looking ahead, Hancock College is planning for a full schedule of in-person instruction on its campuses, which is likely already boosting enrollment.

"We've scheduled our classes for fall as if we'll all be back," said Walthers. "So we're planning for the fall to be more normal than we've been and we're seeing student numbers are up. Students are responding and they're registering for classes and they're really excited about getting back in-person with their faculty members."

He's optimistic more students that have taken a recent academic break during the pandemic will re-enroll for classes and return to their academic studies.

He added that staff is on-campus to help make sure students can register for classes if they need assistance.

"They can come onto campus if they're struggling," said Walthers. "Our staff has been great. We've actually been on campus and open for months. We've realized that our students, too many of them needed that personal touch, so our staff has been great getting students registered, getting them financial aid. We're really proud of the way the staff has responded to this. If they need to come on campus, they should just come on campus and we'll take care of them."

Hancock College currently has registration open for the summer and fall semesters.

Registration is open up until the first day of class.

The first day of summer semester is June 14, while the fall semester begins August 16.

For more information about Allan Hancock College registration, click here.