South By North Strategies, Ltd.

A story in the Triangle Business Journal explains the surge in enrollments occurring throughout North Carolina’s community college system. When coupled with funding reductions, this trend effectively is causing the system to turn students away for the first time in its history. Reports the Business Journal:

The institutions have reached capacity in almost all fields, and they lack instructors, desks and lab space to take on any more students. While the schools remain committed to the goal of open enrollment – no student is told he or she cannot sign up for a class – the schools are struggling to find space in some classes that students want to take.
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“We theoretically don’t turn anyone away,” says Stephen Scott, president of Wake Technical Community College. “But realistically, that’s what happens. We’re trying to come up with ways to just have a place to put them.”
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The colleges say they are doing what they can to try to address the problems. They’ve asked instructors to teach more classes. They’ve hired more adjunct professors, who are less expensive to employ. They’ve pushed class sizes to the maximum number that a classroom or instructor can handle. They’re adding courses between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., when demand for classes is typically low. And they’re promoting the system’s online courses.