Changing population puts NIC’s focus on recruitment

A strange thing is happening with the number of people applying to North Idaho College: While the total number of applications is up 19 percent over last year, financial aid applications are down 9 percent.

That’s virtually unheard of in higher education, said Kent Propst, the school’s spokesman. “That’s a phenomenon that none of us have ever seen before,” Propst said. “Financial aid apps always track regular apps.”

The quirk could reflect changing demographics of applicants, but Propst said he and others at the community college have another theory: They suspect that those wanting to enroll aren’t looking for a full course load and won’t be taking the minimum six credit hours that financial aid requires. Registration for part-time enrollment already has increased this year by about 13 percent, while full-time enrollment has decreased by about 7 percent.

This means more students taking fewer courses, which can amount to a drop in credit hours and contribute to budget cuts, such as the $215,000 reduction the college’s Board of Trustees approved last month for the 2006-07 school year’s $33 million operating budget.

To help avoid such cuts, NIC recently created a new position dedicated to recruitment of new students. The college is also beginning to focus more on programs for nontraditional students – senior citizens and high school students looking for a head start on college.

“It’s a huge time of transition at NIC,” Propst said. “The day when you could count on your full-time, 18- to 20-year-old, residential liberal arts student to be your enrollment is changing rapidly.”

Though enrollment increased by 5.7 percent between fall 2001 and fall 2005, it dropped by 3.3 percent in the last year of that four-year period. The college attributes declining enrollment to increasing employment opportunities, said Maxine Gish, NIC’s director of admissions.

Gish said she’s confident things will turn around at NIC. A drop in enrollment one year does not qualify as a trend in declining enrollment, she added.

“It’s not a trend unless it’s more than a couple of times,” she said.

But Propst warns that higher education is becoming increasingly competitive and says NIC needs to make changes to respond to that.

“Normally we would be dancing in the streets saying, ‘Boy, we’re going to have a bang-up year this year’ ” based purely on the surge in applications, he said. But the low number of financial aid applicants and the emerging trend of college applicants “shopping around” could mean the total enrolled credit hours next year will fall far below what the number of applicants could indicate, he said.

“We have got to get better at competing,” Propst said. “We aren’t the only game in town anymore.”

Community Colleges of Spokane lowered its tuition for out-of-state students this year to $1,064 for 15 credits, a decrease of $328. The lower price is more than $400 less than what Idaho students from outside Kootenai County pay to attend NIC full time. NIC offers those students tuition waivers of up to $500 to help equalize tuition between Kootenai County residents and students from outside the county.

That’s just one example of the increasingly competitive tactics used in the higher education system, Propst said.

Small colleges from around the country are expanding their advertising range, he said, making it even more necessary for NIC to do the same. Part of new recruiting specialist Christa Thaxton’s job is to reach into Eastern Washington and Montana and recruit students who might otherwise not know NIC exists.

A former administrative assistant, Thaxton said she’s looking to recruit not just traditional students, but senior citizens and other adults.

“We’re just trying to expand our reach into areas we haven’t been before,” Thaxton said.