Getting 'slammed' by a Monterey Peninsula College supporter

A gentle reader took me to task for "slamming" Monterey Peninsula College in a story I wrote about its proposed $2.5 million budget cut. You can find the story here, but here's the gist of it: The college has been flagged by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges because of its finances,  citing its declining enrollment, and excessive salaries/benefits packages.

The reader first challenged me for distorting the words of the ACCJC, saying the "excessive declining in enrollment" was my interpretation.

So there's no shadow of a doubt of what the ACCJC said in its letter, here it is, for your reading pleasure. And my apologies, I should have posted it up sooner.

 The gentle reader goes on to say that declining enrollment at MPC is due to many, complicated factors -- hinting that I should have expounded on those. True enough, I'm aware of the complications, and I plan to address those in a future article.

I'll take it a bit further. The decline in enrollment is not just at MPC, but nationwide. According to a report released by the US Census Bureau, college enrollment nationwide in 2012 plunged by half a million (467,000) from one year earlier. This decline, which includes both graduate and undergraduate enrollment, follows a period of substantial growth ─ 3.2 million ─ between 2006 and 2011.

The decline was driven by older students, those 25 and older. Their enrollment fell by 419,000, while the enrollment of younger students declined by 48,000.

Those among you who know MPC well know its student body has a significant percentage of "life long learners" or older students. Since the decline was seen most sharply among the older population, it only follows that MPC was significantly affected.

Now, the question is, how will MPC tackle this challenge? Stay tuned.