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Published on: 3/25/2007
Last Visited: 3/26/2007
Elise Davis-McFarland, Trident's vice president for student services, said school officials expected lottery tuition assistance to boost enrollment at the school.Enrollment has risen slightly, she said.
This year, 11,808 students enrolled, up 5 percent from the 2002-03 school year.
The lottery's larger impact is that it has allowed many students to take more classes, Davis-McFarland said.
They can spend more time on campus instead of working to raise money for tuition.That lets them complete academic and training programs or move to four-year universities more quickly, she said.
Tuition assistance is good news to the increasing number of younger students who plan to go on to four-year colleges, Davis-McFarland said.
That group of students is growing at Trident as admission to the state's four-year schools becomes more competitive, she said.
During the past two years, the average age of students at Trident has dropped from 27 years old to 26 years old, she said.That's because more 17- and 18-year-olds are enrolling at Trident, she said.
The downside
The biggest problem with the lottery plan, Davis-McFarland said, is that the amount the state Legislature devotes to lottery tuition assistance for students at technical colleges varies from year to year with the amount of money the lottery takes in.
That means that students don't learn how much lottery assistance they will receive until about a month before each semester begins.
Annual amounts have varied from $1,512 to $1,992.
That makes it difficult for students to plan, Davis-McFarland said.
Many technical college students have jobs and families, she said.
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