JCJC has no enrollment issues

Ellisville, Miss. - Throughout the country, enrollment figures at community colleges have been on the decline, except for a few like Jones County Junior College.

JCJC President, Dr. Jesse Smith said, "Our enrollment has increased over this time last year. We had a four percent increase from Spring to Spring. Last Fall, it was somewhere between six and seven percent, and the prior Summer was about 25 percent."

But the question is, how has JCJC been able to do this, while other community colleges have been suffering.

Smith said "I guess it goes against the trend for a couple of reasons. We've been very aggressive in our recruiting; in what we call our on-boarding process. But primarily, is trying to control cost. We've reduced our student’s textbooks cost."

JCJC has also implemented a way where it’s easier for students to get into classes.

Smith said "we've put more terms within a semester. Where there's more stopping and starting points for a student."

Smith explained the biggest issue JCJC has to solve.

Smith said "we have to be very aggressive in recruiting and more importantly in retention. Our retention rate is up six percent, which is very important. Right now, the community colleges are in a really tough place. They can't push their tuition up much further and what we're getting from the state is not enough to keep pays for what we're expected to do."