The number of students taking courses at Iowa’s community colleges this fall is down. The Department of Education’s Community College administrator, Jeremy Varner, says this report gives a quick look at what’s happening at the school’s. “This is really just a slice of those credit students who are enrolled in fall. And essentially what we’re seeing, is that at Iowa’s 15 community colleges, enrollment this fall has slipped about point-six percent, to just over 93-thousand students statewide,” Varner says.

He says the report that they’ll put out in January will look at the entire school year enrollment, but this gives an early look of what is happening. “Iowa’s community college enrollment throughout its history is generally a history of growth. There aren’t too many years where we’ve seen declines,” Varner explains. “We had such tremendous growth during the recession we’re seeing that correction — and now it appears to be sort of leveling off.”

Varner says the overall drop in the fall came as there has been an increase in high school students taking community college courses. “That was up over five percent. Over the past several years we continue to see year-over-year growth in that area. Students graduating from high school today have many more opportunities to pursue college credit course work than students did ten years ago,” Varner says.
Varner says you need to look at the individual community colleges to get a clearer picture of the enrollment.

“We had about six see enrollment gains, while eight saw declines this past year. And there is a variety of different factors and you have to kind of look at the trend lines to really see what is going on there,” according to Varner. “You know there is a lot of different reasons for that variability, but some saw declines as much as eight percent this fall, and some saw growth as much as eight percent.”

He says keeping enrollment steady is important to these schools. “Community colleges are more tuition dependent than they were 15 years ago. So, when institutions see declines in enrollment, they really feel it,” Varner says.  Iowa Valley saw the largest drop in fall enrollment at seven-point-six percent, Des Moines Area Community College dropped five-point-two percent, Western Iowa Tech last three-point-eight percent, Northeast Iowa one-point-four percent, Iowa Lakes lost one percent of its enrollment, while Iowa Central and Iowa Western lost nine-tenths of a percent. North Iowa Area lost one-tenth of one percent. Indian Hills saw the biggest gain of eight-point-two percent, followed by Kirkwood at three-point-eight percent, Southwestern at three-point-five, Northwest was up three-point-one, Eastern Iowa had a three percent increase and Hawkeye Community College saw a one-point-five percent increase.

Varner says each school has some key things that impact their enrollment. “Each institution has its own context, it has its own labor market conditions, they have their own recruitment efforts, they have their own competitors, all these things sort of bleed over each other.”  The community college enrollment is made up of 90 percent Iowans, and around 40 percent are full time students.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad has pardoned two turkeys as part of an annual Thanksgiving tradition in Iowa. Branstad issued the special proclamation Monday outside Terrace Hill in Des Moines for two turkeys named Zoey and Spike. Branstad noted during brief remarks that the birds had survived bird flu this year. The disease killed more than 1.1 million turkeys in the state.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a woman has been killed in a single-vehicle crash in Des Moines that also injured a man. Des Moines police say 22-year-old Scalicity Boyd was a passenger in a vehicle that struck a utility pole Monday morning. The driver, 24-year-old Troy Lee Mure Jr., was injured and transported to a local hospital.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa regulators are transferring money that they had withheld for months from university research centers that study alternative energy and global warming. Yesterday’s reversal by the Iowa Utilities Board comes after critics said the board was violating the law by hanging on to $5.1 million that it collected from utilities.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa egg farms are gradually recovering from the bird flu that destroyed 25 million of the state’s egg-laying hens this spring. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says in a report Monday that Iowa egg production during October was 753 million eggs. That’s up 2 percent from September but down 47 percent from a year ago. Iowa, typically by far the nation’s leading egg producer, fell behind Ohio.

Sheriff’s deputies in Adair County arrested a Greenfield woman last Friday, in connection with the Oct. 27th theft of prescription drugs from an apartment in Greenfield. 40-year old Heather Louise Dunmire was arrested for allegedly having in her possession 10 Tramadol pills for which she did not have a prescription. The drug is used to treat moderate or severe pain.

Dunmire was charged with Criminal Trespass, Theft in the 5th degree, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and a Prescription Drug Violation. She was being held in the Adair County Jail on $300 bond.

A Pottawattamie County man was arrested Monday afternoon on attempted murder and other charges, following a domestic disturbance that resulted in a weapon being fired. According to Council Bluffs Police, 29-year old Mackland Thomas, of Council Bluffs, was shot in the leg as he allegedly attempted to run over two women, one of whom was holding her child.

Mackland Thomas

The incident began at around 3:50-p.m. at 1022 5th Avenue, in Council Bluffs. An investigation determined 22-year old Samantha Butler, of Council Bluffs, was in her bedroom talking to several people and 18-year old Craig Anson, of Council Bluffs, when Thomas arrived and attempted to kick the bedroom door in. After he entered the room, Thomas attempted to lunge at Anson.

Butler got between the men, but Thomas pushed her out of the way and against a door, causing Butler to suffer minor injuries. Thomas then got on top of Anson and began hitting him in the face. 41-year old Kimberly Trotter, who was also in the home, retrieved a hand gun from her bedroom and began striking Thomas with the hand grip in an attempt to get him to stop assaulting Anson.

Persons in the home were able to get Thomas off of Anson and push him outside of this residence. Butler and Trotter were standing on the grass just off of the porch when Thomas got into his 2003 Ford Escort and backed his vehicle up. Thomas then allegedly intentionally drove on the grass towards both women, narrowly missing them. Butler was also holding her infant child at the time of this incident.

Trotter then fired the hand gun one time at vehicle driver side door striking Thomas in the leg. Thomas then fled in his vehicle from the scene to 820 Ave H. He was transported to Mercy Hospital by Council Bluffs Rescue, treated for the gunshot wound and released. Thomas was then arrested and booked into Pottawattamie County Corrections charges that include two counts of attempted murder, assault while participating in a felony, child endangerment, and domestic abuse/serious assault.