In its final fall semester before moving to a new campus next year, Northeast Lakeview College continues to set records for enrollment and classroom hours.

Dr. Beth Lewis, vice president of academic affairs at NLC, said early figures show 3,391 students enrolled in classes that began Aug. 27, up from the 2,391 students who enrolled in the fall 2006 session, which was the college’s first in its newly opened facility at 8300 Pat Booker Road.

Also on the increase, at an even steeper rate than the enrollment, is the number of classes being taken. Lewis said unofficial figures last week showed 7,826 “contact hours” – the number of hours in which students are in classrooms, at one hour per class, per pupil – logged this fall. That figure represents a 35 percent increase over the fall 2006 total of 5,506 contact hours.

A number of factors have contributed to the increases, Lewis said.

We have more offerings at more times throughout the day and evening,” she said. “We still are a very good value for the excellent level of instruction a student receives. And, more people know about us that didn’t know last year, so that helps enrollment, too.”

The November 2005 passage of a bond issue that set aside $125 million for the 238-acre Northeast Lakeview College site provided an entirely new flow of students, many of whom didn’t know the college even existed in its site, a cramped 11-classroom facility on Pat Booker, two blocks away from the current site, which opened in fall 2006.

More students and increased contact hours also meant additional faculty this fall.

“In fall 2006, we had 61 full-time employees, including 26 full-time faculty. This fall we have 72 full-time employees, including 36 full-time faculty,” Lewis said. “We employ 104 adjunct faculty members this fall.”

And the soaring contact-hour total also means sections of some courses have closed out, while more have been added. The addition of faculty helps address this need, but the college has limited time and space available for more.

“Obviously, core classes such as English, history, government and math fill first, particularly during the ‘prime-time’ hours, mornings 9 a.m. to noon,” she said.

“We will continue to try to add more sections of these classes, although they will likely be during afternoon hours as all of our classrooms are booked during the prime times, and we simply have run out of classroom space during certain hours.”

Looking ahead, Lewis addressed the expectations for the spring 2008 enrollment, which will be the final session at the newer Pat Booker Road site.

“In spring 2007, we had 2,949 students, and we anticipate about a 15 percent increase in population (in spring 2008),” she said.