Rochester Community and Technical College bustles with more students this year
Aug. 26—ROCHESTER — Sophia Onsager noticed a difference the moment she arrived on campus for the first day of school at Rochester Community and Technical College.
The campus felt more bustling. Strolling the hallways, playing ball at the regional sports center or simply walking around campus, it was clear that the campus was alive with more students. And that in turn created a vibe, an energy and a more buoyant mood than the one she remembered last year.
Onsager is a sophomore surgical tech student this fall, and so just knowing the ropes made her feel "more comfortable."
"It's like everybody is smiling at each other, having a good time," Onsager said. "It's different than it was last year."
After several years of falling enrollment, RCTC is seeing a preliminary surge — a 4.74% increase in full-year equivalency from last year at this time. More students are choosing in-person learning as well, officials say. While remote learning remains popular with students, the first week of school saw a 7.5% jump in in-person learning.
Those numbers, often associated with the health of a university or college, are translating into fuller parking lots, busier labs and greater traffic in social spaces like the RCTC atrium.
While walking around campus and greeting students, Jeffery Boyd noted that the last week has been the most active he has seen the campus since being named president five years ago.
"There are more students on campus. And with more students in the classroom and the hallway, it seems like we have a new energy this year," Boyd said.
RCTC, like colleges across the state and country, has been in the middle of a decade-long enrollment decline. The pool of high school graduates has shrunk considerably over the years.
Though why numbers go up one year and down another can all be somewhat mystifying since Southeast Minnesota's economic engine is still humming along, giving young people more of an incentive to work rather than go to school.
One area of growth, officials said, is the number of students in Postsecondary Enrollment Options, a program that allows high schools to earn tuition-free college credit.
Boyd said he understands the value of remote learning, which became more popular during the COVID pandemic. Many RCTC students do a combination of in-person and remote learning. Without the remote learning option, many students juggling school and work wouldn't be able to do both. He also thinks students are voting with their feet, by coming to campus and interacting socially and educationally with their peers.
"When it comes to the value you get in human-to-human relationships, you can't beat that," said Boyd, who met his wife while both were attending a community college. "And it works best in a face-to-face, people-to-people environment."
Most of the students in Heather Sklenicka's organic chemistry class take a hybrid form of the class because of the flexibility it gives them to study, and work or raise a family or both. The lecture is delivered online and lab work is done in person. When she asked for a show of hands, 75% of the students indicated that without online classes, they couldn't take the class.
The growth in student numbers does more than allow administrators and faculty to feel more optimistic. More students brings in more tuition dollars, and more resources means the possibility of expanding programs, not cutting or curbing them.
Sklenicka, who is also RCTC's faculty president, sees the optimism reflected in faculty meetings.
"We're not talking doom and gloom. We're not figuring out where we can cut the budget," she said. "We're talking about where we could maybe expand something."
