Kaua‘i students’ college enrollment stayed low in 2021

PUHI — College enrollments, which dropped at the onset of the pandemic, have remained down on Kaua‘i.

The College and Career Readiness Indicators Report published by the Hawai‘i Data Exchange Partnership showed that between 2019 and 2020 college enrollments dropped 9 percentage points on Kaua‘i, from 58% to 49%. This was the largest drop-off in many years — the college enrollment rate usually hovers in the high 50s.

In 2021, the number held at 49%.

“There’s been a vast emotional impact on students in the last two years to the point where we’ve had a number of students isolate themselves from the academic environment,” said Larry Gardner, a counselor at Kaua‘i High School. “(COVID) took such a toll on kids that a lot of them are not ready for college.”

He said that this was the result of a lack of in-person schooling along with the broader economic and emotional toll the pandemic had on families.

“Deaths, loss of jobs, loss of houses, divorces definitely impact our young people,” said Gardner.

This trend differed from school to school, with Waimea High completely turning around its college enrollments (60% to 45% to 61%), while Kapa‘a High (56% to 46% to 41%) and Kaua‘i High continued downward trends (60% to 54% to 49%).

The decline in enrollments reflects a nationwide trend.

According to an Inside Higher Ed article from January 2022, enrollment declined by 5.1% nationally since the start of the pandemic.

At Kaua‘i Community College, English Professor Patricia McGrath saw students struggling to adjust to the learning loss during the pandemic.

“Students are coming to us less prepared than they were before because of the lost time, and they’re lacking the academic soft skills that we depend on in order to succeed in college,” she said. “Distance learning is a wonderful thing for the right people, but it wasn’t the right thing for everyone.”

KCC saw a 6.4% bump in enrollments in fall 2020 but fell 10.5% in spring 2022 compared to the same semester last year.

The college population decreased by 200 students since spring 2019, from 1,358 to 1,158.

In a past The Garden Island article, KCC Chancellor Joseph Daisy said that the pandemic and the local economy likely contributed to the fluctuation in enrollments.

He saw a correlation between the shutdown of the tourism industry in 2020 and the increased enrollments, and saw part of the decline as a result of the reopening of the industry and the jobs that came with it.

McGrath agreed.

“Families lost income,” she said. “So if students were able to find work — often students were choosing to go work to support their families instead of going to college, just out of necessity.”

Silver linings

Kapa‘a High senior Jessica Drent sees college enrollments returning to the norm as the pandemic restrictions lighten.

“Last year everybody took a gap year because they didn’t want to go to school while COVID was still happening,” said Drent. “Now that college is in-person everyone is applying now.”

She is planning on attending Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts this fall. She has participated in an early college program, which allowed her to pursue an associate’s degree at KCC while attending high school.

She said while the pandemic made school different, remote learning was helpful in getting her access to the early college courses.

“I don’t think that us getting that degree would even be possible without online learning, honestly.”

McGrath also saw some positives in the shift towards remote education during the pandemic.

“It’s allowing us to reach more students,” said McGrath, “students who perhaps don’t have reliable transportation or child care or who have difficult schedules with work. All of those students can access higher education.”

She also said that decreased enrollments had led to smaller class sizes, which offer a more personal learning experience.

Despite the benefits, McGrath said she was looking forward to getting back into a classroom. The college has offered some courses on campus in the spring semester, but McGrath, who has a pre-existing condition that puts her at high risk of the virus, has been unable to return to in-person teaching.

“Things are going to be different,” she said. “But I’m optimistic that things will improve once we get the students who need in-person training back to being face-to-face.”

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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.