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SALT LAKE CITY -- Whether it's because of the economy or because people want to potentially supplement their income with more training, the number of people heading to community colleges is skyrocketing all over the country. Officials from Salt Lake Community College say it's currently the sixth fastest growing community college in the nation.
The college's Public Relations Director Joy Tlou says, "Just a few years ago, we were at 28,000 students. Last year, we were at just over 33,000 students. This year, we're at just over 35,000."
The official enrollment numbers for all of the schools in the system will be released by the Commissioner's Office in the coming weeks.
Tlou says the school knew the growing number of applications could cause problems if it didn't make some changes.
"This spring, we recognized that there was going to be a huge class coming in," Tlou says.
The first thing the school had to do was remind its current students not to wait as long as they normally did to register for classes.
"We engaged in a campaign that warned students and really admonished them to get started early and maybe even take a summer class so that they can get a head start on their required classes," Tlou says.
He added, "We've also set a deadline for application, and that's the first time we've ever done that."
Even as more students took summer classes, the school still had so many applicants it had to create a new term that starts in October. That's not the only growing pain.
Tlou explains, "We really had to redouble our efforts in academic advising. We have a group of academic advisers that literally broke records on the number of personal visits they had with students."
In some cases, they've counseled groups of students at a time. The school also has a counselor dedicated to answering students' questions online.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
