New student Haleigh White (right) poses with her mother (left) for a selfie. Photo: Haleigh White
By Xailia Claunch
Editor
Although enrollment is down this semester from last fall, the pandemic has brought some additional reasons to attend community college.
The current student headcount as of Sept. 2 is 8% lower than last year, according to Mika McAskill, the strategic enrollment management vice president at WCC. Credit hours have decreased by 4.7%.
Enrollment is expected to improve as the semester progresses, McAskill said.
Washtenaw was rated the number one online college in Michigan prior to schools shutting down due to COVID-19, according to the WCC website. This combined with lower tuition helped drive many students to attend WCC rather than a university.
Classes are almost entirely virtual for the fall 2020 semester with the exception of certain lab classes, which will be held in a hybrid format with safety protocols in place.
“I would’ve already been struggling to pay for a four-year college and I didn’t see a point in struggling to pay for online classes when I knew I could get better ones at WCC,” said Estella Clark, an incoming freshman at Washtenaw and recent graduate of Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School.
Paying less for online classes seemed to be a common theme, but other students felt much safer at a local campus.
“I chose to go to Washtenaw to save money on my required classes,” said Haleigh White, a new WCC student and recent Skyline High School graduate who was originally planning to attend Michigan State University. “I also felt like Washtenaw was the safer option regarding COVID.”
However, despite some opting for community colleges instead of universities, other students chose not to attend classes at all.
Recent high school graduate Karis Castria. Photo: Karis Castria
Karis Castria, a recent graduate of Saline High School, has multiple reasons for not attending college this semester.
“I don’t want to bring COVID home to the vulnerable people in my family or spread it to people at work. I also have a hard time with online classes and would rather not spend money on them right now,” said Castria.
According to the Washtenaw County Health Department, cases of COVID-19 among those of college age are on the rise, with 51% of the county’s recorded cases last month belonging to people under 30.
Eastern Michigan University delayed move in and the start of in-person classes by three weeks due to the pandemic. The University of Michigan remains open for both in-person and online classes.
