Yuba College among California community colleges seeing uptick in enrollment post-pandemic

YUBA COUNTY – Community colleges across the country suffered hefty declines in enrollment over the pandemic. But California's community colleges might be making a comeback.

One example is Yuba College. This school year they've seen higher enrollment than pre-pandemic. The vice president of Yuba College attributes it to several changes they made to make enrollment more accessible for everyone.

"The reason why I chose here is it's easily accessible here," said Yuba College student Emanule Martinez.

Martinez is a veteran and he now plans to become a firefighter by attending Yuba College's fire program, something he found through one of the community college's partnerships.

"We're really building those partnerships trying to expand our outreach and I think those are things that are helping," said Yuba College Vice President Jeremy Brown.

Brown says their investments in student support and emphasis on removing enrollment barriers are working. This year is the highest enrollment they've seen since 2005.

Just before the pandemic in 2019, they saw 6,300 students. Once COVID hit, they dropped to 5,700 students. And now this year they're seeing more than 6,400 students.

Brown was asked if the entire district is seeing success in numbers this year.

"Yes. Yeah. Probably we've seen about a 20% increase, and the district overall an 18% increase," he said.

"I was nervous because I was like, 'Oh college a little scary' and then they made it all really easy for me," said Yuba College student Kathy Soto.

Soto says Yuba College staff came to her high school where they walked her through pre-registration. Now she's been a first-time college student for two weeks.

"If people are going to help you through every step of the way and they kinda just make it easy for you, it's going to want to make people enroll more. And I think that's what has happened," she said.

"I can tell that there are more people coming out. Like today how there's tents out and stuff," said Martinez.

But it's not just Yuba College. Brown said his cohorts across the state say their enrollment numbers are up this year as well.

"Post-secondary education is the great equalizer. It is all about social mobility so that's why we're here. That's why community colleges exist. It's about equitable achievement," said Brown.

Another element is the face-to-face classes. Students CBS13 spoke with said they were happy to have them back and were more likely to enroll because of that.