Germanna has a total enrollment of 13,000, ranging in age from these 13-year-olds at a summer Tech Prep Camp, to a 94-year-old computer student. The community college is the fastest-growing in Virginia, but funding is declining.
In a piece in Saturday's Free Lance-Star headlined 'Crisis Breeds Opportunities,' Business Editor Howard Owen writes:
When the economy tanks, some parts of society have growth. A receding tide does not leave all boats stuck in the mud...
The state's community college system seems like a natural for growth in an economic downturn. Tuition runs about a third of the average at four-year state university, and that's before room and board. People who have lost their jobs are going to be looking for the kind of training opportunities offered there. And the system, which began in 1966, is growing like a weed anyway.
According to Jeffrey Kraus, the system's assistant vice chancellor of public relations, enrollment over the past two years has been "pretty dramatic." There are about 250,000 students in the system, plus another 190,000 in work-force training. Germanna Community College, with campuses in Fredericksburg and Locust Grove and a tech center in Culpeper, has about 6,300 students this fall, [and a total enrollment of 13,000, including workforce] up about 10 percent from last year. It's the fastest-growing of the state's 23 community colleges, percentage-wise.
Still, there is a problem.
The same downturn that might drive students to the community colleges is the force behind cuts in the system.
"We're gratified that the governor only cut us 5 percent," said Dr. David A. Sam, Germanna's president, referring to recent action by Gov. Tim Kaine. "Nonetheless, community colleges lost 5 percent last year, 5 percent this year and x-percent next year to be determined by [the state]."
Tuition probably will rise some, but "we don't want to make up for the state funding cuts [through tuition hikes], because we would not be affordable," Sam said.
"It's hard to build new programs and new buildings and hire new faculty," he continued. "We had lots of needs before this, and now the need will be even greater."
Sam said the expected rise in prospective students is at best a mixed blessing, and not just because of the budget cuts:
"We're in the community. Our friends, our neighbors, our families are threatened or affected by the downturn. Bad news affects us directly or indirectly.
"We care about the community," he added. "Community is our middle name."
There is a fund-raising group at Germanna, but the kind of endowments that large four-year schools amass is in another world.
"Community colleges have a shorter history of donation," Sam said, adding, "and we don't have winning football teams."
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