ESCANABA - School started Monday at Bay de Noc Community College, and the institution reported an overall increase in enrollment for the fall 2008 semester.
Director of Student Services Mary Leisner said total student enrollment is up 8 percent, and contact hours are up 6 percent. "It's a good thing, we're happy about it," she said.
Leisner said new student orientation and registration was underway as of last week. The college will service more than 200 new students, according to an enrollment report to the board of trustees.
In the online environment, enrollment is down 1 percent. Leisner said she did not know whether the opening of West Campus in Iron Mountain contributed to this. Online contact hours are up 6 percent, which means less students are taking more credits online, she explained.
At the West Campus, student headcount (enrollment) is up 25 percent and contact hours are up 29 percent.
At the Escanaba campus, student headcount is up 5 percent and contact hours are up 4 percent.
For the spring/summer semesters, the college saw an increase in students headcount, credit hour production and contact hour production over last year. The headcount went from 593 in 2007 to 621 in 2008, credit hours went from 3,163 to 3,404 and contact hours increased from 3,598 in 2007, to 3,999 in 2008.
Leisner said the college was pleased by this.
"We had a nice increase in headcount, credit hours and contact hours over last year," she said.
