The new year 2024 for SUNY began with a major announcement that went largely unnoticed. Clinton Community College will begin the process of co-locating on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus. That's great news, but if that bit of news sounds surprising, then perhaps you haven't been paying attention.
Let's consider the macro trends. The Baby-boomlet (children of baby boomers) ended around the year 2000, which meant the college enrollment cliff would begin around 2018. While the overall population of New York State grew slightly since the year 2000, there has been a significant demographic shift to an older population.
The news reports on the decline of Clinton may need a little explanation. For instance, it was reported that Clinton had 2249 students in 2012 and 994 in the academic year ending 2023. Those numbers - often referred to a "head count" - are misleading at best. They include part-time and full-time students lumped together as if there is no difference. A full-time student taking 5 classes is not the same as a part-time student taking 1 class. In fact, the proper measure is FTE (Full Time Equivalent) which treats 5 students taking 1 course each as the equivalent to 1 full-time student taking 5 courses.
Additionally, the news reports mention that a large portion of the student base is high school students enrolled in Advanced Placement classes. Let's translate what that really means. The college is counting high school students sitting in a high school classroom taking a course from a high school teacher for which they will receive both high school and college credit as part of the college's "head count."
Yes, those students "count" and both the high school and college are receiving state aid based on that student, but they are not sitting in the Clinton Community College classroom taking a college course from a college instructor. If it weren't for the fact that Clinton is such a beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain, I would doubt many of those students could find the campus without Google Maps.
So, what's the "real" FTE enrollment? At their peak, Clinton served about 1300 FTE. By 2018 they were offering around 240 courses each semester to about 650 FTE. In Spring 2024 they are offering just over 90 courses to a "guesstimate" of about 250 FTE.
The co-location to the SUNY Plattsburgh is great for Clinton students. They'll have the same access to the 90 classes currently being offered, but likely they will be able to take some Plattsburgh courses that Clinton can no longer afford to offer. So, that's a "win" for students.
Additionally, one would hope that the Clinton-Plattsburgh alliance will allow for seamless transfers of Clinton students into the Plattsburgh programs. That's another win for Clinton students as well as SUNY Plattsburgh.
Higher Education changes like this have been buzzing around the SUNY campuses for years. The question was whether the "domino effect" would start with SUNY Central, the State which controls much of the funding, or the local communities that sponsor the community colleges. Thanks to the foresight of the Clinton Board of Trustees, we now have a model for how the community colleges can remain viable without limiting the academic options of students.
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