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Northeast Experiences Enrollment
Increase
Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC)
has experienced another substantial enrollment boost for the
fall semester of 2007, with student enrollment surpassing 2,500
students in credit courses. At this point 2,537 students have
enrolled at Northeast, more than two hundred over the fall
semester of 2006, representing a ten percent increase.
“Our final fall semester numbers are still out,” stated Dr.
David Campbell, NACC President. “The numbers will shift some
throughout the term. We will lose some of the students
registered now for various reasons, but we will pick up others
through some additional dual enrollment and weekend courses. I
believe our final enrollment will not vary far from the 2,537
number we have now.”
Campbell added, “When it is all said and done, this will be our
largest enrollment in thirty-one years. The only time enrollment
has been higher at Northeast was for a one-year period in the
mid-1970s when the college enrolled many veterans returning from
their involvement in the Vietnam War effort. That spike in
enrollment was a one-year thing.”
In 2000, NACC had an enrollment of 1,659 students in credit
courses for the Fall Semester. The rate of increase in
enrollment to 2,537 since that time is one of the largest in the
Alabama Community College System.
“The approximately nine hundred students we’ve added since 2000
would be like adding the number of students who attend a
mid-range 6-A high school in the state,” stated Dr. Joe Burke,
NACC Vice President/Dean of Instruction.
Alabama Community College System Chancellor Bradley Byrne rewarded NACC
for its enrollment growth by increasing the college’s state
appropriation for operations and maintenance. This appropriation
had been level for the several years preceding Byrne becoming
Chancellor. The increased funding is for the college’s next
fiscal year, beginning October 1, 2007.
“We are appreciative to Chancellor Byrne for this addition to
our state appropriation,” Campbell stated. “The additional
funding is going to be tremendous help to the college.”
“Northeast has expanded even beyond the enrollment increases in
credit courses,” stated Dr. Campbell. “We now have the Adult
Basic Education program, and it serves some 1,700 people during
the course of a year at locations throughout Jackson, DeKalb,
and Marshall counties.”
The college also serves four to five hundred students each fall
semester in non-credit training for business and industry
programs.
NACC is the site of the
Athens
University Center. Approximately one hundred students take
junior- and senior-level courses through Athens at the Northeast
campus to complete their four-year degrees on campus without
leaving NACC.
Northeast has added many new programs the past several years and
now operates cosmetology centers in Scottsboro and Rainsville.
Many of these programs have been initiated through the college’s
Job Skills Training and Workforce Development Division.
Northeast also is the site of an
Alabama Technology
Network (ATN) Center. ATN engineers provide specialized
training for established business and industry in the area.
The college continues to partner with DeKalb, Jackson, Fort
Payne, and Scottsboro school systems to provide dual enrollment
academic courses for students at area high schools.
Approximately 275 students are enrolled in these programs for
fall semester. The college has begun a dual enrollment program
in vocational/technical training with the DeKalb Technology
Center and would like to extend similar programs to other high
schools and technical schools in the area.
NACC also has formed a partnership with Wallace State Community
College at Hanceville to broadcast a Radiology program to
Northeast via teleconferencing. NACC opened a new teleconference
center this fall.
To accommodate the college’s growth, a 55,000-square-foot Health
Education and Technology Center opened this fall semester. This
state-of-the-art facility added more space for the college and
freed other space that had been utilized. NACC also has expanded
parking, converted some one-way streets to two-way traffic, and
built a new road around the east edge of the campus. All this
was done to provide better traffic flow, to accommodate
enrollment increases, and to make the campus more pedestrian
friendly.
For more information about Northeast, visit the college’s web
site at www.nacc.edu or call
638-4418 or 228-6001.
 NACC
is experiencing a substantial enrollment boost for the fall
semester. Shown are students visiting between classes: (Left to
right): Joshua Tanner of Sylvania; Matthew Hubbard of Flat Rock;
Kyle Putnam of Scottsboro; Ashley Cooper of Flat Rock; Drew
Hammonds of Plainview; Adam Biddle of Henagar, and (in front)
Shana Smith of Bryant. |
