Mohave Community College in Bullhead, Ariz., has been promoting their California campaign with efforts to gain enrollment from students in California who have been affected by budget cuts and need alternative routes for college education.
Charlotte Keller, 63, director of marketing and public information at MCC, shared information on how the California Campaign was started and the efforts that the college has made to educate students on the options that it offers.
“Our president was contacted by the president of Palo Verde Community College, which is just across our border in the area of Needles, California,” Keller said. “He expressed concern that if the state budget cuts, which were foreseen, took place that the legislature would end up dictating that the colleges capped enrollment and that they would limit the number of people they could admit.”
Keller expressed that the president of Palo Verde College was concerned about student enrollment and new laws, which might hinder students from being able to attend Palo Verde College.
“He called to say we are hoping and depending on you to help take some of the students that we won’t be able to admit if this happens,” Keller said. “In response to that we realized there could be a lot of students in California that suddenly found that their plans to go to their community college would not be possible anymore and wouldn’t be able to be admitted because of an enrollment cap.”
MCC can offer many different options for California student applicants with wider enrollment for students who specialize in specific programs.
“Some advantages that we might be able to offer is that is a lot of our programming, particularly our career technical programs like nursing and allied help programs, we don’t have a waiting list and I know that a lot of the California schools do. We don’t have waitlists for our programs like dental health, search tech, and very small waitlist for nursing,” Keller expressed. “Also programs like our automotive technology and automotive collision repair, these are programs that in many big cities with very long waitlists. We offer topnotch facilities with state of the art equipment.”
Considering that Needles is relatively close to Bullhead, MCC is open to enrollment from students who can’t get into Palo Verde or need more college options. MCC’s California Campaign has made it more accessible for other California students to enroll, and Needles is not the only option for student entry at MCC.
“We always get students from Needles because Needles is only about 20 miles from our campus and we actually capture the needles students pretty well because we offer a lot more in terms of programming than in Palos Verde,” Keller expressed. “What we were planning to do is expand our reach into the Imperial Valley, the San Bernardino and Riverside area, and we chose that area knowing that we can’t advertise in all of California, but for those students that might be shut out by the enrollment cap.”
Also Keller explained, “It will cost out of state students $114 a credit hour to come to our school, which is more than their paying in California, but with the same token if they can’t get it in that’s still not a lot of money compared to private schools or other options they may be looking at.”
MCC is looking for new applicants and if any BC students are interested or have further questions about transferring and benefits they can contact Mohave Administration at www.mohave.edu.