By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
At the July 11 Barton Community College Board of Trustees study session, there was a mention that summer enrollment numbers increased significantly compared to last year’s figures. Todd Mobray, Barton’s Director of Institutional Effectiveness, went to work over the next two weeks to present the trustees data highlighting the enrollment increase.
At Tuesday’s board
meeting, trustees were informed that summer 2023 credits increased
approximately 2,500 credits, or nearly 15%, compared to 2022. Barton’s Vice
President of Instruction Elaine Simmons said the data can have a big impact on
how the college moves forward.
"When you look at the bare minimum of information, there's opportunities for discussion on how we schedule our classes and what classes we schedule," said Simmons. "We can also work with Maggie (Maggie Harris, Chief Communications Officer) where we're going to target promotion in certain states and certain age groups."
Barton Online credits saw the largest increase, jumping 2,628 credits. The
Barton campus in Great Bend went from 688 summer credits in 2022 to 733 in
2023. This summer saw an 18% increase in females taking credit hours and an 11%
increase from males.
"Data is beautiful but it requires work," said Simmons. "The challenge comes from making and taking the time to act on what the information is trying to tell you. We're still learning how to do that, but it's something we need to get better at and we only do that through practicing and working on it."
Barton saw 442 more credits from students in Oklahoma this summer, 318 more in
Texas and 214 additional credits in Missouri.
