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Enrollment Swelling, HCC Sells Itself
Community college up 76 percent since downtown move
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Business New Haven
10/27/2003
By: BNH
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BRIDGEPORT - Housatonic Community College (HCC) has set a new enrollment record, registering 4,678 students for the fall semester at its downtown Bridgeport campus. The enrollment number represents a 3.6-percent increase over the 4,515 who registered last fall. It also reflects a 76-percent increase over the 2,653 who registered in the fall of 1996, the college's last semester at its old campus on Barnum Avenue in the city's depressed East End.
"We're delighted that we're able to meet the educational needs of an increasing number of students," said HCC President Janis M. Hadley. "Our goal is to provide the community with the educational access it needs to achieve success, and the steadily increasing enrollment shows just how well we have been able to do this."
Hadley added that HCC provides educational access to students at no cost to the taxpayers.
"An economic impact study we completed last year shows that Housatonic is a profit center that puts more money back into the state treasury than it takes out," she said. "The improved health and reduced welfare, unemployment and crime costs associated with a Housatonic education save the state some $1.4 million per year. Added to this savings are the taxes on the increased earnings that a Housatonic education makes possible."
Overall, Hadley asserted, taxpayers see a 13-percent return on the tax dollars used to fund Housatonic operations, which are recovered in 8.6 years.
The report also noted Housatonic contributes more than $60 million per year to the region's economy, the equivalent of 1,400 jobs, Hadley said. "Also it shows that HCC students enjoy a 27-percent return on their investment of time and money, a return much higher than the long-term return on U.S. stocks and bonds," she said.
Hadley added, "This is an accountability statement that is a testament to the wisdom of the business leaders, legislators and governors who established HCC and continue to fund it."
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