Low Enrollment "Plagues" Harold Washington College
By Cameron Butler
Editor-in-Chief
The near-deserted halls of Harold Washington College echo a deafening silence as student enrollment reached unforeseen lows this semester with students showing concern over what this could mean for the future of the college.
Preliminary HWC data showed a current head count of just 4,672 for the 2021 fall semester. This was a drop of nearly 4,000 students when compared to 8,643 in 2018, according to data from U.S. News.
The now-nostalgic throng of students familiar in recent decades was reduced to a trickle in the age of COVID-19. Even so, this downward trend in the student body predated the pandemic—and was mirrored at community colleges nationwide.
Despite offerings of safer distance-learning at home, enrollment saw a year-over-year decline in 2020 for all three instructional areas: Adult Education, Continuing Education, and Semester Credit. From 2018 to 2020, the total CCC student body shrank by 11,216, a historic contraction for CCC, according to the Statistical Digest.
In 1933, Crane Junior College, the precursor to CCC, was forced to close due to the impact of the Great Depression, when student enrollment saw a similar pattern of decline as seen today. The institution only saw salvation and rebirth as the City Colleges of Chicago after community outcry at the time demanded its return.
History may repeat itself.
A near-deserted hall of HWC.
Another “rebirth” of the college in the near future may be a possibility, as seen in nationwide trends. Various community colleges in recent years have set a precedent by replacing many of their in-person classes with online-only options, according to a recent report from Inside Higher Ed.
Students need to be able to help themselves during this time, according to Director of Academic Support Services Kimberly Valenza.
It is “important for students to be able to be self-serving [and to] get the self-efficacy to utilize resources on campus,” said Valenza.
According to Valenza, students are also free to access academic support, such as tutoring, from any CCC campus, regardless of which CCC college they attend.
For some students, shifting to a permanent online-only class model would negatively impact them.
An empty classroom during peak educating hours.
19-year-old sophomore Sofia Guzman weighed in on the idea of online-only classes at Harold Washington College.
“Attending an online-only Harold Washington College could be both good and bad.”
Guzman also added, regarding her chances of continuing enrollment at an online HWC,
“I feel like it would be a yes and no depending on the classes I have,” Guzman. “Ones that I have now, I would want to attend in-person. If they were more difficult for me to understand online, I probably wouldn’t.”
Another student, sophomore Anthony Ayala, 19, agreed.
“No, because online learning is pretty difficult, so I would have to be in person to actually learn,” said Ayala.
Guzman added, “Probably trying to find a job and trying to balance out school at the same time” might have been an obstacle for students looking to enroll this semester.
The dean of enrollment did not immediately return requests for comment.
