With 4,840 students enrolled in the 2024-25 school year, Centralia College is still far below its pre-pandemic enrollment levels, but data presented by the college last week shows it has been seeing a steady increase in enrollment for the last three years.
Centralia College hosted a Report to the Community event on Tuesday, May 27, as an opportunity for college leaders to share information about the current state of the college with community members.
Enrollment data presented by Centralia College during the event shows that it had a staggering enrollment of 8,532 students in the 2009-2010 school year, then saw a slow but steady decline to between 6,000 and 7,000 students enrolled in the 2019-20 school year.
“All community colleges in Washington grew in enrollment from 1990 to 2010, which, if you remember, was the last big recession we had,” Centralia College President Bob Mohrbacher said. “And since that time, all community colleges declined in enrollment until, when the pandemic happened, everybody’s enrollment fell off a cliff.”
A line graph presented by Centralia College last week shows that Centralia College’s enrollment dropped to approximately 4,200 in the 2020-21 school year.
Data show enrollment steadily increasing from 2020-21 to the current year — with the exception of last year, the data for which was skewed due to a system error, according to Mohrbacher.
“Without that little technical glitch, it (enrollment) just continues up last year,” Mohrbacher said.
While Mohrbacher said Centralia College is working to get back up to pre-pandemic enrollment levels, he said, “I don’t think we will be back up to 8,500 anytime in my lifetime. I think that was a fluke of enrollment statewide.”
Demographics data presented by Centralia College show that 53% of its current students are 25 and younger, meaning 47% are age 25 or older.
“We’ve talked with some of the downtown merchants who really want to encourage students to come to their business, and many of them may not realize that many of our students are 45 with children, and they might not recognize them as students when they first come in,” Mohrbacher said.
Demographics data from this year also show that 49.26% of students are Latinx, 49% are low income, 52% are first-generation students, 61% are seeking a degree and 60% of students are part time.
Data also shows that 600 high school students participating in the Running Start program attended Centralia College this year.
Fall-to-fall retention rates, meaning students who attend one year and return for the next year, is currently at 57%, which Mohrbacher said is consistent with other community colleges in Washington state.
The three-year completion rate is currently at 37%, which Mohrbacher said reflects the fact that the majority of Centralia College’s students are part time.
“You look at that … percentage of students who are part time, 60%, that means it's going to take them a lot more than three years to get through,” Mohrbacher said. “What we know from the data is that if we can encourage students to be full-time for just a quarter or two, they’re more likely to complete, even if they do that as a part time student.”
The largest percentage of Centralia College’s students are in academic transfer programs, meaning they’re starting their education at Centralia College with the intention of getting another degree elsewhere once they receive their associate’s degree.
“Almost as many are in career and technical education,” Mohrbacher said.
As of this year, approximately 200 students were seeking a bachelor’s degree through Centralia College.
“That’s continuing to grow,” Mohrbacher said of Centralia College’s bachelor’s degree programs.
Strategic goals
Centralia College’s primary goal for the next year, Mohrbacher said, “is around supporting students, helping students enter the college and choose a pathway to careers and future education.”
He added, “We want to make sure they know why they’re here, not just here taking classes, but that they have a plan.”
Other goals include modernizing the campus and finding ways that the college can “work smarter, not harder,” such as establishing a purchasing plan for school computers.
Centralia College has also started working directly with local high schools — specifically Centralia High School — on bridging the disconnect between “what the high school leaders thought kids did after high school, and what we saw when kids came to us,” said Vice President of Student Services Robert Cox.
Centralia College received $80,000 in state funding four years ago that, through a partnership with Dollars for Scholars, was used to hire someone at Centralia High School whose job was specifically to help students complete classes and graduate.
“We chose Centralia because they had the lowest passing rate, almost the lowest passing rate of all of our service schools, and they had such a large student population,” Cox said. “ … There was an incredible opportunity for growth there, and that has been very successful this year.”
Centralia High School’s passing rate increased by double digits last year, according to Cox.
While the funding for the partnership runs dry this year, Cox said that the Centralia School District is absorbing the position with district funds and will continue to support it.
“It’s not going to be funded through the college anymore, but the position will stay there,” Cox said.
Other growing programs include dual credit opportunities for high school students to receive college credit, a housing program for homeless students, registration events for high schoolers who have been accepted into Centralia College, and financial aid completion outreach.
Centralia College is also working to expand its financial aid options, scholarship opportunities and on-campus support systems.
Centralia College is also working on some ongoing campus construction projects, including finishing an ADA-compliant ramp for the new athletic field, preparing Silver Street Apartments to open as student housing in the fall, and a new Teacher Education Family Development Center that is waiting on funding to begin construction.
“We’re going to have to wait two more years to get that construction funds from the state, but then we’ll be putting that together,” Mohrbacher said.
Centralia College is also working with the City of Centralia to utilize grant funding to work on a plan for a park, called Hayes Lake Trail, that would connect an area behind the Goodwill on Harrison Avenue with Fort Borst Park. The grant also covers planning work for Main Street and Centralia College Boulevard.
With enrollment down to almost half of its 2010 numbers and many more students taking online or hybrid classes post-pandemic, Mohrbacher said, “we have enough classroom capacity if we manage the scheduling right and so forth, so (it’s) unlikely you’re going to see any new buildings.”
For more information about Centralia College and its strategic plan, visit https://www.centralia.edu/.
