The population and budget of Guilford’s Center for Continuing Education fell far short of projected figures for the fall 2006 semester. This deficit will have a significant impact on the overall growth of the college in future years, campus administrators said.
CCE has seen substantial growth over the last six years, increasing from just under 300 students in spring 2000, to 1,299 in 2005, as reported by the Budget Committee at their Open Community Forum held in January.
The same report projected a further increase to 1,444 CCE students for the current semester. That figure fell short by roughly 200, Guilford College President Kent Chabotar said.
“Its true, we didn’t meet the target in terms of head count,” Chabotar said, “More importantly, we didn’t make budget . All told, the college loses a million bucks.”
Guilford will publish the official figures on Oct 1, but administrators already agree that they will show a significant loss.
“We were less than anticipated in the spring, summer, and now this fall,” said Gerald Boothby, Vice President for Finance and Administration. “So what we’re looking for now is the impact, first on the current fiscal year and also what it means for the long range goals.”
The Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP) specifies a goal of 3,300 students, including 1,700 CCE students, by fiscal year 2010.
“Those projections will certainly need to be revisited,” Chabotar said, “The new number will probably be closer to 3,000.”
Administrators expressed uncertainty as to the cause of the shortcoming in CCE. They suspect, however, that the departure of Bill Stevens, former CCE dean, was significant.
“Bill was the marketing specialist. I think that’s part of it,” said Adrienne Israel, vice president for academic affairs.
Stevens, who retired after spring ’06, oversaw the burgeoning of CCE and played a pivotal role. Campus officials expect that incoming dean Rita Serotkin, who begins work in October, will compensate for Stevens’s absence.
“(Serotkin) is a very energetic and enthusiastic person,” Boothby said. “She has a lot of ideas and I think she’ll do a great job.”
Administrators also speculate that an expansion of the academic programs offered to CCE students will overcome the lag in growth.
“Another problem could be market saturation for the majors that we offer,” Israel said. “If we want to continue expanding the adult student population, we may have to consider adding some new programs.”
Guilford currently offers Bachelor’s programs in 10 academic disciplines for Adult students, including business management, education studies, and forensic biology. Since most CCE students also hold full-time jobs, Guilford will need to offer the new classes at night to coalesce with working schedules.
Guilford’s fiscal sustainability depends in large part on the CCE program. CCE accounts for approximately 17 per cent of the overall revenue of the college, Boothby said. There will be no effort to curb its role at Guilford, despite the current lag.
Guilford justifies maintaining CCE for more than finance, however.
Changing educational trends nationwide suggest that Guilford continue the program on a broad scale in accordance with its core values.
“If our democracy is going to be preserved, more people will need to have access to higher education,” said Israel. “If Guilford is to live up to its stated ideals-as the college that changes lives and wants to change society, to promote equality and justice-the best way, the only way to do that is to open up to adult students. It’s consistent with our mission.
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CCE enrollment falls short of projections
Bryan Cahall
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September 22, 2006
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