PUHI — Fifty-five students by Friday is the unspoken goal of Kaua‘i Community College officials on Monday. Late registration continues through Friday at the KCC One Stop Center and officials are hoping to gain an additional 55 students by end
PUHI — Fifty-five students by Friday is the unspoken goal of Kaua‘i Community College officials on Monday.
Late registration continues through Friday at the KCC One Stop Center and officials are hoping to gain an additional 55 students by end of late registration.
“We’ve never, since the fall of 1992 when Hurricane ‘Iniki hit, have been able to reach 1,500 students,” said Earl Nishiguchi, KCC vice chancellor of student affairs. “But late registration continues through Friday, so hopefully.”
Nishiguchi said KCC opened its doors to the fall semester Monday with an increase in both student enrollment and student semester hours.
Unofficial counts pulled KCC to 1,445 students compared with 1,390 for the fall semester of 2011, an increase of 55 students, or 4 percent.
“This is the largest increase in the community college system of the University of Hawai‘i,” Nishiguchi said. “We’re just 55 students short of being pre-‘Iniki.”
KCC also opened the doors to a student load of 12,826 student semester hours, an increase from the 12,409 SSH shown for the fall of 2011 semester. That was an increase of 3.4 percent, also the largest of all the community colleges.
KCC instructor Brian Yamamoto was having a problem — not enough desks for students.
He worked with Hawaiian Studies instructor Dennis Chun in unpacking salvageable desks from storage with the help of a grounds department worker.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t throw these away when they replaced some of the desks,” Yamamoto said. “We have a lot of students, and I think it would be a benchmark if we can hit the 1,500-student, pre-Hurricane ‘Iniki mark.”
Instructor Carol Bain is looking for more students to enroll in two journalism classes: Newswriting and Journalism 205 Writing Intensive.
In addition, she is seeking students to serve on the Board of Publications and as Ka Leo O KCC editors and reporters.
“The journalism students will be able to have the experience of writing and getting published in the campus newspaper,” said Bain, who noted the campus printed its newspaper for the first time in 20 years last semester.
“It will be a teamwork experience.”
Among the community colleges, Kapi‘olani Community College sports the highest enrollment at 8,888, a decrease of .8 percent from its 8,960 fall 2011 enrollment.
Following Kaua‘i, the Leeward Community College shows the next greatest increase, its first day opening count coming in at 7,716 students, or a 2 percent increase from its 7,564 students in the fall of 2011.
The biggest decrease took place at the Hawai‘i Community College where enrollment dropped from 3,810 students to 3,557 students, a decrease of 253 students, or 6.6 percent decrease.
The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa opened to 18,966 students, an increase of 1.2 percent over its 18,746 enrollment in the 2011 fall semester.
The greatest increase in enrollment took place in the West O‘ahu campus where 1,903 students walked through the gates, an increase of 18.8 percent from its fall 2011 semester where 1,602 students were enrolled.
Overall, the University of Hawai‘i system fall semester count totaled 57,849 students, or a .8 percent increase.
Visit www.kauai.hawaii.edu for more information.
