Kaskaskia College President George Evans says despite the shrinking population of counties that make up the college district, they are continuing to see enrollment increases.
Vice President of Student Services Amy Zanton says enrollment and credit hours are up about three percent for the fall semester on top of a 5.2-percent increase for fiscal year 2025 that ended in June.
“When we went into that COVID year, our credit hours before COVID really hit were sitting at roughly 68,000 credit hours per year,” Zanton said. “We closed out the end of this last fiscal year at just over 74,000 credit hours. We’re proud to be able to say that we’ve made our way back to those pre-pandemic numbers and going strong there.”
Evans says with population losses, the college is looking at getting a bigger percentage of students going to college. He feels they can do that by offering a personal touch and being very responsive to community needs.
“We are going to continue to hammer home how important it is for the public to understand that we are obviously a transfer institution for two-year individuals who want to transfer to four-year, but equally as such, we are also a workforce training provider, from healthcare to manufacturing,” Evans said. “We are the workforce training provider for so many trades throughout the southern Illinois district. We have wonderful relationships with our union partners, on this side of our district and also one the western side. Our goal is to continue to maintain that market share.”
Evans says the biggest training need is in the manufacturing area.
