Bad Economy = Good News for COS

With the plummeting of California’s economy, comes the increase of students to community colleges, including COS. 

There are currently 11,659 enrolled students at COS, marking a 7% increase from last spring’s records. With this increase of students came a 12% increase in units being taken. The demand for classes at COS has never been higher.

Frances Gusman, vice president and head of student services of COS, sees this increase as a positive expansion.
   
“I see vibrancy; I see more energy.  I didn’t realize how empty we were until this increase came,” she said.
   
Gusman linked this expansion heavily to the economy, she offered, however, several other reasons for the growth. “With new leadership and new programs we have made ourselves more visible and available.”
   
Gusman, along with other staff members, teamed up to form “Reg to Go”. This program is designed for the purpose of increasing the population at COS. In teams of fourteen, the staff visited high schools and other public locations to register more students and to promote the college.
   
“One good thing about this increase, is the wide range of age in the students,” said Carol Enns, a philosophy professor at COS.

Many students now enrolling for COS are re-entry students. Many have been in the work field for years but are now returning to further or change their education in order to get ahead in today’s increasingly competitive job market.

“There are people still in high school sitting next to adults in there fifties. This makes class a lot more interesting and we are all able to learn from one another and help each other,” said COS student Samantha Cloer.

Additionally, Mona Freeman, the International Student Coordinator, said “This diversity is what makes COS a true community college.”

This increase, however, has its difficulties.
   
“We are over-capped,” Gusman said. “We get paid for the increase of students until we reach a certain percentage, we have exceeded that percentage.”

Without an increase in funding from the state and the increase in class demands, COS has had to make many modifications. Gusman said the online transcript requests are one such example. More will be offered online so more students can be assisted without the increase of staff.

“It is challenging,” said Gusman, “Because some programs are in limbo because we haven’t received the state budget. Programs such as EOPS (Extended Opportunity Programs and Services) which assist many students are in jeopardy of being dropped.”

Classes with low enrollment must be looked at extremely carefully, Gusman said, in order to appropriately accommodate all the students on a capped budget.

“Yes the parking is bad and lines are longer, but as I remind our staff, we are serving more people,” said Gusman.