Barton Community College’s Dean of Institutional Effectiveness Charles Perkins told the Board of Trustees on Tuesday that online enrollment is expected to continue to grow, offsetting otherwise “flat” enrollment trends.
In his report on strategic planning, Perkins told board members that BartOnline enrollment is forecast to grow by 8-9 percent a year for the next three or four years. Enrollment overall at the college is forecast to grow by 3 percent.
Part of the enrollment growth has come with a targeted effort to draw more students from other states. In a separate report, BCC Director of Public Relations and Marketing Brandon Steinert said he’s about to begin international marketing via Facebook to prospective students in India.

Higher tuition
Perkins also noted that students are paying a greater share of the cost of their college education than they did less than a decade ago. In Fiscal Year 2010, tuition and fees accounted for 31 percent of the college’s revenue, compared to 42.7 percent in FY 2017.
In FY 2010 32 percent of the revenue came from local taxes, 33 percent came from state aid and 4 percent came from other sources. In Fiscal Year 2017, 29.3 percent came from local taxes, 25.6 percent came from state aid and 2.4 percent came from other sources.
“There’s no indication (the revenue distribution) is going to get better,” Perkins said. “As funding has been stretched to the limit we keep growing and doing more.”
Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman said a 7.9 percent dip in online enrollment last year could be attributed to changing the platform used to provide online courses and also to more soldiers being deployed. Barton offers programs and services to military personnel and their families at Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth.
“We got back what we’ve lost and then some,” Heilman said, adding online enrollment growth is “back on pace” even though deployments are still a negative factor.

Action items
In action items at Tuesday’s BCC Board of Trustees meeting, the board approved minor revisions to its Governance Manual. These changes reflect the fact that elections for trustee positions are now held in November instead of April.
The board also approved hiring two new employees. Kiersten Stone was hired as a customer service representative at the Fort Riley campus and Tyler Soper was awarded a contract as director of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) program and director of the Great Plains Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Education Center at the Grandview Plaza campus.