Influx of students has CCSN optimistic

Voters cast their ballots for their favorite candidates last Tuesday in Nevada's primary election.

But Community College of Southern Nevada President Richard Moore says students are casting their ballots for their favorite school today as they begin attending fall semester classes.

"People in Nevada have voted -- 20 percent more students are going to the largest institution in the state than last year," Moore beamed. "We have grown from 27,000 to more than 32,000."

Moore may have been a little premature in his election results, because the final figures are not in. But whatever the final number is, it far outstrips what the state Legislature originally predicted.

"We were projected to grow 9 percent this year," CCSN spokesman John Kuminecz said. "We may end up growing between 20 and 25 percent."

That compares to the projected head count of almost 22,000 at UNLV and of more than 12,000 at the University of Nevada, Reno.

CCSN enrollment is expected to double by the year 2005.

"Hitting the 30,000-plus mark this fall shows a great endeavor on our part," said Arlie Stops, CCSN's vice president of admissions, records and financial aid. "As fast as this valley is growing, it is our responsibility to keep up with the demand."

Kuminecz says the main concern facing CCSN is managing growth and quality at the same time.

"We need more support funds, which helps us hire extra faculty," he said.

College officials are preparing to ask the 1999 Legislature to provide funding on actual growth, rather than projected, so that money will be there to help maintain quality in education as well as physical expansion.

Even with four campuses in Las Vegas, not to mention satellite campuses such as those at Pahrump, Mesquite, Laughlin and Nellis Air Force Base, it requires creative scheduling to make sure there is space for everyone who wants to go to CCSN.

"One thing we're doing different is spreading classes out to increase utilization (of the space)," Stops said. "Having places to put students is important."

And so classes begin at 8 a.m. or earlier and end at 10:30 p.m. or later.

"Most colleges don't go that far," Stops said.

CCSN is at the tail end of its record-breaking hiring of faculty members.

The college has more than 300 instructors on staff, an increase of about 90 percent over the past three years, according to Kuminecz.

Forty additional instructors have been hired for this fall and 20 or 30 more will be hired in the spring. More than 100 were hired last year.

"We've done some research and believe we are the fastest-growing college in the nation," Stops said.

To take some of the frustration out of registration, students have been able to enroll through the Internet, by telephone and in person.

Today, however, it's strictly in person, which means long lines as students try to change, add or drop classes.

One reason CCSN has been able to sustain its growth is that it takes advantage of every opportunity to provide a service to its public, officials say.

For example, Kuminecz notes, classes begin a week later than at UNLV, which started the semester Aug. 31.

"This can benefit some students," he said. "If any UNLV classes close for some reason, the students can still come here."

Cross-enrollment is not uncommon, with students attending classes at both institutions.

Other factors that help bring students to the CCSN campuses include intense courses, which a student can attend three days a week, four hours a day, and complete the work in four weeks.

"They can mix intense courses with semester-long courses," Kuminecz said. "That's our way of recognizing that some students may not be able to be here for an entire semester but can be here for concentrated periods of time."

Flexibility is the key to success at CCSN, Kuminecz said.

For example, there are three classes that will never be closed to students -- English, psychology and computers.

"There are guaranteed seats in those three classes," Kuminecz said.

And to ease the ever-present problems related to being a parent and trying to attend college, school-age children of CCSN students can come to college with their parents and receive free evening supervision and homework help. They also can participate in leadership and youth activities provided by the Boys & Girls Club staff.

Other CCSN improvements include:

* Construction is under way on a $25 million classroom building. The 120,000 square feet of space should relieve some of the overcrowding at the Charleston Boulevard campus.

* CCSN students have a chance to take a variety of unusual programs, such as the veterinarian technician program, the first of its kind in the state.

* There is an award-winning dental-hygiene program that soon will become the caretaker of a museum housing the archives of the International Academy of Pierre Fauchard, the father of modern dentistry. The archives will be moved from a Chicago location to the Charleston campus in the near future. The Charleston campus also will be the site of a post-graduate dental residency program that will allow an intern to see patients at a clinic on the campus, visit hospitals and treat indigent patients.

* Another special program offered through a partnership of CCSN and the Clark County School District is called "high school on campus." Eligible high school students take college courses on a CCSN campus during their junior and senior years. By the time they graduate from high school, some will already have a year of college out of the way.

* CCSN provides Nevada's only certified American Sign Language Training and related degrees and certificates of achievement in deaf studies.

"Las Vegas will emerge as the fastest-growing metro area in the last 25 years," Kuminecz said. "This is the educational system's solution to keeping pace with that growth and taking advantage to present some dynamic programs."

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