JALC enrollment increases steadily

By Gus Bode

For the 15th consecutive year, enrollment at John A. Logan College is rising.

Steve O’Keefe, director of communication for JALC, said the Cartersville community college saw a two percent enrollment increase for the Fall 2007 semester. The previous fall semester had enrollment reaching 5,783 students and increased to 6,061 this year. Aside from baccalaureate transfer students, the enrollment increase may be former employees of manufacturers, such as Maytag in Herrin, that have closed plants over the last year.

“Our numbers were going to be up even without those students, but that makes a big difference,” O’Keefe said.

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Victoria Valle, vice-chancellor for enrollment at SIUC, said she was excited for JALC, which is the largest feeder community college for SIUC.

“It certainly gives us more opportunities to recruit from there and adds more people to the pipeline,” Valle said.

SIUC opened a new service center in the JALC transfer office last week. The center assists students in finding their way, which may not necessarily mean SIUC, Valle said.

“A lot of people think that it is a competition between us and SIU, and it’s not. We have the success we have because of SIU,” O’Keefe said.

Enrollment is expected to increase even further as a $20 million building project begins in October. The construction will include classroom expansions for the B and E wings, new service bays and classrooms for automotive facilities. More space at the cosmetology department and additions to the community health education building are also planned.

Donte Cherry, a student from Carbondale, said he chose JALC instead of four-year universities because of the lower tuition costs. Cherry said he plans to transfer to SIUC at the start of his junior year and when all of his general education classes are done.

Tuition is not the only reason Cherry chose JALC.

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“It gives me a chance to meet new people,” Cherry said. “I didn’t know there were so many people (at this school).”

The option of community college is becoming more popular as shown by the number of local graduating high school seniors who chose JALC. Sixty percent of Eldorado High School’s 2007 graduates are now freshmen at JALC. Carbondale Community High School also sent 36 percent of its senior class to the college.

Eighteen-year-old Chad Skaggs of Hurst said he came to JALC after high school instead of SIUC because of low ACT scores. He said he loved the college for its smaller class sizes and not having to declare a major.

Although JALC is an open-admission school, placement testing went into effect for more popular programs such as health care and cosmetology, O’Keefe said. In some cases, this means students are being turned away because classes are full.

Daily Egyptian writer Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 274 or [email protected].

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