Like other community colleges in the state, Housatonic Community College is seeing a boom of new students brought on in large part because of the still sour economy.
So far this summer, class registration among full and part time students at HCC is up 8 percent over last the same time last year. Part time enrollment is up 13 percent, fulltime enrollment up 3 percent. Paul McNamara, acting dean of outreach said students can still get into some popular classes but may be shut out of the most sought-after time slots.
In 2009, Housatonic’s fall enrollment stood at 5,609 students, a 10 percent jump over the previous year. The college is essentially running on the same budget it had in 2008, with a freeze on full time faculty. Adjunct faculty are picking up the slack and now account from 55 to 60 percent of instructors. Meanwhile, there has been no increase in the amount of counselors, registrars or other support staff, according to McNamara.
