Workers put up a wall for COCCs new campus center Friday.

McKaley Wafford, a 22-year-old from Redmond, decided this fall it was time to return to school. She’d tried college before but hadn’t been ready.

She wants to start taking classes at Central Oregon Community College and work toward a career as either a photojournalist or something in politics.

But both the math and writing classes she decided to take have long waiting lists because of the large number of students who have enrolled at COCC this fall. So now she’s feeling a little in limbo, wondering whether she’ll get into the classes and, if so, whether the books will be available.

“I’ve got a few years under my belt, and I’m actually ready to learn, and I’m excited about it,” she said. “I work at a pizza place, and I definitely don’t want to make pizza forever.”

Wafford isn’t alone. On Wednesday, COCC held its 12th registration day of the summer, and once again people showed up in droves.

Classes start Monday, and with the enrollment expected to increase as much as 20 percent from last year, it’s not just long waiting lists that students and staff have to worry about.

The increase of nearly 1,000 students is hitting the college everywhere, from overflowing parking lots to overworked professors and support staff.

Official enrollment won’t be counted until mid-October. But according to Ron Paradis, the director of college relations, it looks like there will be nearly 5,500 students enrolled this fall, an increase of between 15 percent and 20 percent from last year.

More students mean a need for more classes and professors, as well as general support staff.

Entry-level crunch

According to Kathy Walsh, who is the vice president for instruction at COCC, entry-level classes are at a premium right now.

“We’ve done what we can,” she said of trying to accommodate students. “We do still have some availability, but mostly those are in classes like geography, history, sociology, literature. There are some fine arts and music, and some health and human performance classes.”

But everything else is full, especially in science, writing and math courses. Walsh said the longest waiting list is for a spot in anatomy and physiology.

“Those are often the entry point, and so even though we have some of those second-year classes with seats in them, a lot of time students have to start at the prerequisite levels,” she said. “It’s looking like we’ll just start with every seat full if the enrollment continues through Monday.”

To deal with the high number of students, Walsh said the college added 28 sections in July, particularly math and writing courses. The hardest area to add more sections, and the one with the most interest, is in science. The school has limited lab space, and it’s difficult to find instructors for those courses.

For the additional courses, Walsh said the college hired many adjunct and part-time professors.

Even the classes available in Redmond are filling up.

“I don’t want the message to be that we’re full. It’s just getting harder and harder for students to get the schedule they wanted,” Walsh said.

Campus squeezed

Between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., when COCC offers most of its classes, every classroom on campus is full. And COCC is trying hard to find more space. This summer, the college remodeled its bookstore, and in the meantime moved the copy center and mailroom from Ponderosa Hall to the bookstore area.

Now, it is changing those old spaces in Ponderosa into two 30-student classrooms. The school even found a former storage space in the library that will be converted into a classroom. The rooms should be available for winter term.

“We are not closed. We still have some sections open,” Walsh said. “Some students may be able to find courses that would work for them now, but others might be able to take those entry-level courses, those big gateway courses, in winter. They may need to wait until later in the year.”

The waiting game

And for those students who can find the courses, they’ll need advising. Which is why Vickery Viles, who works in the Careers, Advising and Personal Counseling Center at COCC, has been so busy these past few weeks.

Viles said the college was more prepared than last year for the influx of students.

“When we designed the services for this summer, we designed them with what we thought was ample growth. We designed them for early in the summer because it helps a student get registered earlier,” she said.

But there were so many students the college still had to add another advising and registration date.

“Big things and little things impacted us,” Viles said. “We were inundated with placement testing, so we rush-ordered more tests. We ran out of space and had to use overflow rooms, we had to hire more proctors. We even ran out of pencils that they use to take the placement tests.”

The staff and advisers in the advising center skipped training this fall to fill their schedules with advising appointments.

“They’re really getting tired,” she said. “It’s a good thing we’re coming to the end here.”

And one of the challenges the advisers face now is different. When there was plenty of room at the college, advising students and getting them registered in the proper classes was easy.

“When you get this full as a college, the advising takes longer,” she said. “When you need to respond on how full classes are and the availability of classes, it starts to take a longer and longer time.”

To that end, Viles said she is meeting with college officials to figure out how to make sure students still receive proper advising.

The biggest challenge facing Viles right now is how to help students who are enrolled in health programs.

“We’ve got so many pipeline students relative to the number of faculty advisers we have in that program,” she said. “We need to have some conversations about how best to serve the students here and keep them here long enough to meet their goals.”

One of those students is Heather Wedmore. The 35-year-old from Bend hopes to study nursing but has just begun taking prerequisite courses. She’s not on any waiting lists but knows how difficult it is to get into the nursing program at COCC, which traditionally has to reject dozens of qualified students each year because of space constraints.

Still, it’s worth it to Wedmore, who works as a self-employed horse trainer.

“I’m worried about the economy,” she said. “I want to solidify my future.”