By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Enrollment begins on Wednesday and Hutchinson Community College will open for the spring semester Jan. 10.
HutchCC President Dr. Carter File said Monday that student enrollment is going to be a challenge for the coming semester and beyond, and students take a closer look at the value of college.
“The national trend is that students are being cautious about higher education,” File said. “In many cases because of the cost of it. In some cases students aren’t seeing the value out of higher education.”
File says that is a trend they are fighting to change.
“Our job is to convince them (students) that what they get out of a higher education far exceeds any amount of money they are going to pay or any time or effort they put into it,” File said.
As in the past, COVID will probably be a factor again this semester, but the college is looking at two things from 2022 when it comes to the virus.
“I think it’s going to fade into the background,” File said. “One of two things is going to happen. We’re going to conquer it or it’s going to become commonplace.”
Until then, File says that, as the semester starts, it will be business as usual.
“At the college, we’re going to approach it very much like we did in the fall,” File said. “We’re probably going to relax a little bit of our social distancing in our classrooms. We had a great fall and we didn’t see a lot of outbreak and we didn’t see a lot of spread.”
Still, if students don’t want to attend class in-person, the college has alternatives.
“We have great online offerings,” File said. “So if students don’t want to be in class, they can certainly take classes from us online and complete an associates degree.”
File says they will monitor the COVID situation on a week-by-week basis and if changes are needed they will address them at that time.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.