Oct. 21, 2008 — Some positive outlooks on student enrollment and a Department of Education grant were presented at the Lassen Community College Board of Trustees regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct 14. LCC President Doug Houston reported that enrollments for the fall 2008 semester are up 5.4 percent over fall 2007 enrollments.

Houston said even though overall headcounts for the school are down, students have enrolled in more courses, causing a rise in overall enrollment statistics.

LCC Dean of Student Services Cary Templeton attributed the increase in average student courseloads to better scheduling on behalf of the academics departments at LCC.

"If it is easy to work a class into your schedule, a student is more likely to take that class, and we can thank a lot of people in scheduling for making it easier on our students," said Templeton.

“The increases, however, will not help the school reach enrollment targets for this year, but it is progress,” said Houston.

Houston also presented to the board a plan to extend the Strengthening Institutions Grant, a five-year grant Lassen College was previously awarded, but which ended in September.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's Web site, the Title III grant is aimed at helping institutions of higher learning become self-sufficient and expand their capacity to serve low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability of the school.

Houston said LCC's eligibly for the grant was automatically extended by the Department of Education, and the application to renew the grant is now in process. A recent external evaluation by the DOE also showed that LCC had successfully accomplished all of the objectives of the grant, said Houston.

"Once you are successful with one grant, you are more apt to get the same grant the next time around, so the outlook on that is good," he said.

The next regular meeting of the LCC Board of Trustees will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, in the "N" board room on the LCC campus.