With finals signaling the end of the spring semester at City College, the upcoming summer session maintains a slight decline in enrollment compared to last year.

“What is different this year is that we will have one additional week of registration for Summer I that we did not have last year,” said Director of Admissions and Records Michael Medel.

The 2019 Summer I session currently shows a total of 4,247 students enrolled, a 1.3% decrease from the 2018 Summer I session of 4,301 students.

The Summer II session currently has 3,359 students enrolled, a 5.6% drop compared to 2018’s count of 3,558.

Medel said with two months left until Summer II registration, there is still time left for the numbers to change.  

Although the numbers for this year’s summer sessions are lower than past years, 2018 enrollment numbers finished on a positive note with a 2.8% increase for Summer I and a 2.2% increase for Summer II.

With registration still open and the added benefit of having an extra week between spring and summer, Medel projected enrollment to “even out compared to last year’s numbers when all is said and done.”  

The sharpest decline came in 2016 when Summer I experienced an 11.6% drop in enrollment and 10% for Summer II.

Dean of Student Affairs Arturo Rodriguez said the enrollment decline has resulted in more classes being dropped in the summer because there wasn’t enough students to fill the class.

“Historically, when there are a lot of jobs available, people tend to work instead of going to school,” Rodriguez said. “It is an inverse relationship.”

In order to increase enrollment and better serve the community, Rodriguez said he will reach out to the local community of K-12 students and promote the City College Promise program. One of his goals is to attract more working-class adults by providing associate and certification options to increase their marketable skills.  

“When we build a schedule we have to go based on enrollment,” Rodriguez said. “Whenever possible we don’t close classes.”

Summer session I registration remains open until the drop date on May 26, 2019. Summer session II registration also remains open until the drop date on July 9, 2019.