By Sarah R Baker and Ryan Fournier
The closure of the Sequim campus of Peninsula College is yet another result of Washington state’s consistent declines in enrollment.
“The primary reason was that we just didn’t have sufficient enrollment there to justify keeping the facility open,” said Peninsula College President Luke Robins. This is not the first time a drop in enrollment has affected on-goings at PC. Last spring the Associated Student Council scrambled to successfully compose a budget plan for the 2017-2018 school year after they lost close to $45,000 in funding.
This was due in part to a decline in enrollment, one which hit an all time low last year, with a Full Time Equivalent (that is, all enrolled credits divided into fifteen-credit blocks) of 1,387 as opposed to the determined 2,000 necessary to keep PC afloat in terms of tuition fees and funding; as well as various shifts in the coding of tuition payments, primarily that of International Students.
PC isn’t alone in these cuts and losses. This decline has been suffered statewide, with only two exceptions: Bellevue College and Highline College.
Calculating how to prioritize spending to events and items of high importance takes tough decisions and a tough staff; one of those necessary cuts, of course, pertaining to the PC Sequim branch. The bulk of their operations surrounded Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language, however other eclectic courses, such as fly-fishing and various computer skills, could be found there as well.
PC does intend to continue conducting courses in Sequim when it is possible to do so. The common solution, concerning both the main campus and the Sequim one, appears to be targeted recruitment. Over the next year, PC hopes to develop a
long-term plan in Sequim based on demand, according to Robins. The college is going to communicate with the Sequim School District as part of its assessment. Sequim schools have an indirect connection to the adult education offered by PC, since many of those served are Sequim residents who did not complete their education while in high school.
“We’re gonna take some time to really think it through, and do some analysis of what the demand is in the community,” said Robins. If this does not entail having a permanent facility, he said it could involve short-term renting or entering into a cooperative agreement with the City for the use of space. The City of Sequim has offered the use of space at the Sequim Civic Center, and at their Transit Center.
The solution to the decline in enrollment at the Port Angeles campus is to advertise the online Associate of Arts degree and the online Bachelor’s degree, ac- cording to Vice President of Finance and Administration Deborah Frazier, following the news of the ASC’s drop in funding last spring.
“Our typical student is a 28 year old single mother of two kids working full time,’ said Frazier, “we need to figure out how to find those people, how to get through to them and how to make our programs available to them.”