After Pandemic, Bay Area Community Colleges Seeing Drop in Enrollment

SAN JOSE (KPIX) — Despite offering a great deal on higher education, many California community colleges are seeing huge drops in enrollment that are affecting some Bay Area students.

The San Jose City College campus has been refreshed with new buildings and green landscaping, but there are fewer students around to enjoy it.

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The student center is nearly empty, and the well-stocked campus store has everything but customers.

“There’s fewer people out in the yard. The classrooms are all empty and unoccupied,” said SJCC student Andrew Glover.

Many of the classes at City College are still online only, but even for those that are meeting again in person, the number of missing students is obvious.

“We began with a whole bunch of students but for some reason, they’re not here anymore. So we’re just like 8 or 10,” said student Gilberto Valle.

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”For us in this district right now, we’re down about 12 to 13 percent but some of the other districts are down 20 percent,” said Interim Chancellor of the San Jose Evergreen Community College District, Raul Rodriguez, PhD.

Rodriguez said what’s happening in San Jose mirrors a nationwide trend for two-year colleges. It may have to do with a student body that is generally less able to afford an education, especially during the pandemic.

“People have to work. They don’t have the luxury of attending to their education the way they did in the past. They also want short-term training, so we’re trying to adapt our programs to respond to these different needs,” Rodriguez said.

Besides free tuition, San Jose City College also provides free food and even rental assistance for students to make it easier for students to attend classes.

“A lot of the students here, have to have full time jobs to be able to afford an education,” Glover said.

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So far, enrollment declines have not forced staff layoffs or program cutbacks at the school. But if the large numbers of students who left during the pandemic never return, Rodriguez said those cuts could come.