After two years of COVID-19, community college enrollment was in triage. But fall 2022 saw those losses slow. Some institutions were even able to reverse their downward trajectory.
Indian River State College (IRSC) in Fort Pierce, FL, and Coahoma Community College (CCC) in Clarksdale, MS, saw their efforts to rebuild their student populations pay off. At CCC, a Historically Black College and University, fall 2022 enrollment jumped 22.2%, the highest enrollment gains of any community college in the state. IRSC’s fall 2022 enrollment increased by 8.9%, with its incoming cohort breaking their ten-year average enrollment by more than 1,000 students.
Dr. Timothy Moore, president of Indian River State College.
“College attendance across the nation has taken a precipitous decline over the last several years,” said IRSC President Dr. Timothy Moore. “It was most pronounced from 2016 to 2020, where we dropped about 25% of our enrollment. It was a dangerous decay, and Covid pushed it hard nose downward.”
When he became president of IRSC in late 2020, Moore brought business acumen to his new role. He refers to potential students as “customers,” adding that higher education is a “crowded” place with a “plethora of choices and online programs, and we have to compete for customer attention and sell them on the value proposition.”
Moore made several leadership changes after his arrival, bringing in new chief information officer Dr. Timothy Marshall from Dallas College, where their local promise program was giving underrepresented minorities greater access to higher education.
Hoping to attract even more diverse students to IRSC, a Hispanic-serving institution, Moore launched the IRSC Promise Program in 2022. Available to any high school student who graduated from one of their 14 area high schools, public or public charter, IRSC waives the tuition of anyone who enrolls full time.
