Correction 9/14/20: This story previously misspelled Dean of Enrollment Services Gerald Sequeira’s last name in the sixth paragraph. The story has been updated to correct it.
COVID-19 has had devastating effects around the world. Daily life has been changed dramatically, and Citrus College is no exception.
Dean of Enrollment Services Gerald Sequeira, Ph. D, made a connection between the recent drop in enrollment and the complete transition of all courses to an online format.
“All of the courses have moved online, and not all programs make sense online,” Sequeira said in an Aug. 19 Zoom meeting, referring to the large number of students who come to Citrus College for career technical education programs and performing arts programs.
Sequeira presented reports indicating that as of August 19, enrollment for credit courses was down 11.5% from one year ago. An even greater disparity exists for enrollment in noncredit courses, which is down 42.7% from Fall 2019.
This downward trend in enrollment is not specific to Citrus. In a survey of California community colleges conducted by the Bakersfield College, schools reported a 10.7% average loss from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020.
The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the country entered a recession in early June, however Sequeira said that a recession usually correlates to an increase in enrollment.
Despite having more time available, Sequeira reported a 42% drop in the concurrent enrollment of high school students during the Summer 2020 session, one thousand fewer continuing students than in the Summer 2019 term.
Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services Claudette Dain explained that despite the decrease in enrollment, Citrus College has been granted fiscal relief.
“While the majority of the college’s funding is based on enrollment, the California community colleges were granted fiscal relief for the spring term so that colleges would not be impacted financially due to COVID-related emergency withdrawals,” Dain said.
Dain explained that the college will be protected despite low enrollment.
While declining enrollment in summer and fall could impact funding, “enrollment funding is calculated on an annual basis in accordance with the state’s new Student-Centered Funding Formula. As part of the new formula’s implementation, colleges are held harmless for funding purposes (minimum revenue provisions) through the 2023-24 fiscal year.”
Students are uniquely affected by the pandemic.
Performing arts major Marty Avila returned to Citrus for the spring 2020 semester.
Avila was enrolled in two introductory acting courses when the pandemic hit and did not complete either course.
“Everything happened so fast,” Avila said. “One day the professor said, ‘next week we might not even have class physically.’”
Once the switch was made and Avila started receiving emails explaining how the courses would continue, he hesitated to participate.
“That’s not what I wanted to do, or what I signed up for,” he said.
Avila expressed his understanding of this new normal and his willingness to continue pursuing his passions, dreams, and education, even if it means producing (himself) through a digital source.
Avila also expressed his appreciation for the work instructors did to navigate the changing landscape.
One such professor navigating a new teaching process is Music professor Sean Fitzpatrick, who taught six courses this past semester. Fitzpatrick said he could not foresee ever having to teach during a global pandemic.
Reaching out to his colleagues at Citrus and at other campuses, he found himself in good company in learning how to keep students engaged through trial and error.
“None of us had training for teaching in the event of a quarantine,” he said.
Once the campus closed, Fitzpatrick had a couple of weeks to reformat six different courses. Trips and performances that normally take a considerable amount of planning had to be cancelled and replaced with other instruction.
“It was very jarring,” he said.
Fitzpatrick found that the switch to online learning highlighted the financial and mental health disparities among students in a way that he had not seen before.
“Attendance suffered massively,” he said. Fitzpatrick had to balance being empathetic with holding students responsible for their performance in the course. Fitzpatrick also found it difficult to communicate with students. Their responses to his correspondence were often untimely and sometimes nonexistent.
“I’m always learning as an instructor,” he said.
He discovered he was more effective meeting with students in small groups, and he plans to incorporate more of that in this term. “Students can be held more accountable when they aren’t just one box in an ocean of boxes on a Zoom call.”
Sara Fisher was one of Fitzpatrick’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble students in the spring.
“When the pandemic forced (class) into separation, the social magic that made up a musically fulfilling education was ruined,” she said.
Fisher recalled the difficulties she and her classmates faced when trying to recreate a shared learning experience virtually.
“I think it was really clever of Fitzpatrick to put effort into group bonding by doing … activities that weren’t exactly ‘making music,’” Fisher said. “Technical difficulties aside, I found that Vocal Jazz set themselves apart … by focusing on what was possible, not impossible.”
Overall, Fitzpatrick came out of the spring 2020 term more knowledgeable and feeling more equipped for online education going forward.
Administrators, instructors and students alike came out of the spring and summer terms better equipped to continue educational processes in this new environment.
