John A. Logan College’s streak of record-breaking enrollment numbers with each passing semester has finally come to an end.

Terry Crain, Dean for Student Services, released the most up-to-date fall semester 2010 enrollment figures Wednesday, showing that the college is down 237 students from last year’s epic fall enrollment of 7,024. This fall’s total is 6,787.

“We all knew that last year’s economic downturn-driven enrollment spike was going to haunt us this fall,” Crain said. “Using our normal projections of enrollment, last year, we should have been at 6,200 and instead we were over 7,000. This year, we should be around 6,300 and we’re at 6,787. So, we are still above where we should be with our projected normal enrollment numbers.”

Crain pointed out that the total number of local high school seniors in the 11 high schools that make up the JALC district from the class of 2010 was down this year.

“In fact, it was the lowest number of this group in the last five years,” he said. “It was down 3 percent from last year’s senior class. What does that mean? It means that our main recruiting base is shrinking.”

There were some positives to take away from these latest enrollment figures, Crain said. They include:
• Second largest fall enrollment ever at the college.
• Credit hour total of 59,073 is the third-largest total ever for a fall semester.
• Of the 2010 in-district graduating seniors, 42 percent are attending JALC, highlighted by Elverado’s senior class total of 55 percent. Herrin and Johnston City tied for second at 53 percent.
• Illinois residents attending Logan come to Carterville from 449 different high schools.
• Second-largest minority fall enrollment ever at 744, making up 11 percent of the total enrollment, or the same percentage as last year.
• Largest population ever (435) of students who received a GED before attending Logan.
• Number of students taking online courses has increased. This year’s total is 1,315.

JALC President Dr. Robert Mees said he is still “very pleased” with the enrollment numbers.

“We didn’t quite make it to 7,000, but it’s hard to be upset with an enrollment of nearly 6,800. Last year’s 7,000 figure was unusually high and was largely the result of some company layoffs in the area. Falling back a little doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Mees said booming enrollment numbers are great, but not the most important part of operating a college.

“What we are here for is to serve our students with quality programs,” he said. “We’re not going to have an enrollment increase every year. What we have is a good number. A lot of colleges go years without any growth at all.”

Vice President for Instruction, Dr. Julia Schroeder, said Logan continues to offer strong, viable and quality programs for its student body.

“The needs of the students are served by offering courses in numerous modalities, various time options, sites that are both on and off campus, as well as our continually growing online offerings.”