By Isaac Warren
Editor
Lincoln Land Community College has a decent sized student body. This semester, the 10-day headcount totaled to an impressive 3,475 students. Looking at previous years, however, shows a different story.
Since 2012, LLCC has seen a decrease in student count. The term student is defined as someone who is enrolled in college-level courses. Each year, the percentage of enrollment has gone negative. The difference in enrollment rates from 2012-13 was a mere 1.1%. Not terrible, but not desirable, either. The rates for 2013-14 were a bit more steep, with a 5% difference in enrollment. Currently, the difference between Fall 2015 and Fall 2016 semesters is 9.1%. The college has stated that its budget was created anticipating a 9% decrease in enrollment, so these numbers are not surprising. In total, since 2012, enrollment has declined at LLCC a whopping 21.8% This is nearly a fourth of the student body in 2012, missing. In terms of actual numbers, LLCC went from 20,675 enrolled students in 2012 to 16,175 students currently enrolled this semester.
Enrollment rates are declining, and are starting to fall faster. The college clearly anticipates this happening, since they had their budget out for FY 2016 on September 23, 2015, according to the official final budget that was released. In the same document, an increase in property taxes, and a “decrease in instruction related expenses due to the additional enrollment decline” is also cited for the budget.
How long can the college slow down spending before this institution is running bare bones? Actions need to be taken in order to recoup the losses seen in the past few years. Currently, the pattern indicates that there will be a decrease greater than 10% at this time next year.
The budget can be found at http://www.llcc.edu/research/facts-about-llcc/
Isaac Warren can be reached at [email protected]
