Board of Regents also hears about plans for new police department building
The Board of Regents learned of the latest enrollments numbers at its Oct. 5 meeting.
There are 10,401 students registered this fall, down 2.3 percent from fall 2020, which had 10,678 students. One likely cause of the drop, officials said, is that the fall 2021 semester began at the height of the COVID-19 delta variant.
Even though the number of students was down the college credit hours were up 4.6% from last fall, enrollment figured showed.
“It’s significant to point out that contact hours are up from fall but headcount is down and that’s the impact of HEERF,” said Executive Vice President Lenora Keas.
HEERF is the Higher Education Emergency Funding provided by the government to help with emergency costs to students whether tuition, food, housing or health care.
Officials also discussed the Student Outreach Plan, which focuses on re-engagement, retaining and supporting students in enrollment.
Del Mar College also has purchased the former bookstore at 3002 Ayers St. The building will be renovated and eventually will house the DMC Police Department. Regents motioned to adopt the award for renovation to local company Victory Building Team at $2.4 million, using the 2014 Bond unallocated interest income.
The board was given an updated report of Clery Act Statistics that reflected a decrease in reported crimes across all Del Mar campuses. Instances of crime were largely down in 2020, when most of the college was closed because of the pandemic.
One burglary was reported on Heritage Campus, which also saw one liquor law violations and one report of domestic violence. At the Windward Campus, one motor vehicle theft was reported in 2020, along with two drug law violations and one weapons violation. One case of stalking was reported at the Center for Economic Development, while no crimes were reported at the Northwest Center or at the college’s Corpus Christi International Airport facility for aviation maintenance.
DMC President Mark Escamilla also addressed the current state of the pandemic.
“Campuswide COVID-19 positive cases have declined significantly in past weeks,” Escamilla said. “From Aug. 30 to Oct. 3 the reported total of positive cases dropped by about 88% from 43 to 5 cases.”
For updated COVID counts and other resources, visit www.delmar.edu/offices/cro/cv.
