There’s been much talk about the enrollment cliff. The term refers to a drop in the population of school-aged individuals. For colleges and universities, this drop begins in 2025-2026, when the number of high school graduates will peak.
This “cliff” really isn’t a cliff at all; it’s just a decline in population triggered by the Great Recession. It will manifest in various parts of the K-16 school system for about a decade. It may even continue after that. For community colleges, this decline may not be as difficult to manage as it is for K-12 schools and will be for traditional colleges and universities.
Nothing is a given, but community colleges deliver instruction to adult learners of all ages. In theory, when the size of one age group shrinks, older (or younger) students may fill in the gaps. Of course, that assumes community colleges have something to offer for adults of all ages. Community colleges that have little to offer stand to lose enrollment right alongside traditional higher education institutions whose programs serve 18-22 year olds.
Community colleges are at a crossroads. If they adopt the position that their enrollment declines are the result of the oncoming enrollment cliff, then they must address the issue of reducing their expenses. It’s common for the size of the instructional staff to increase and decrease with enrollment. Less commonly does the non-instructional staff suffer the same fate.
Only recently have community colleges begun to determine who stays and who goes for the non-instructional staff. Some administrators refuse to acknowledge that – just as their institutions may not need as many instructors – the institutions also may not need as many non-instructional staff.
Community deserves to know WCC’s strategy for managing enrollment cliff
In Washtenaw Community College’s case, the instructional staff consisted of 151 full time individuals in 2022. In the same year, WCC’s non-instructional full-time staff numbered 342. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in that year, the number of people engaged in managerial occupations was 70% of the size of the full time instructional staff. Overall, it employed more than 3.25 full-time, non-instructional staff members for each full-time instructor, and 2.17 non-instructional, non-managerial workers for each full-time employee engaged in a management occupation.
2.2 employees for every one manager.
So, WCC has two choices, as it stands at the precipice of the enrollment cliff. It can reduce the size of the non-instructional staff to align with its declining enrollment. Alternately, the administration can increase the enrollment to align with the size of the full-time staff.
Either way, now is the time for the WCC Administration to reveal its grand plan for coping with the enrollment cliff.
So, what will it be?
Photo Credit: Alex Berger, via Flickr
