Trident Technical College’s enrollment soars

Trident Technical College has grown so dramatically over the past few years that now only the University of South Carolina has more undergraduates enrolled.

Mary Thornley, the school’s president, said enrollment had been growing steadily for more than a decade, but it skyrocketed in the past few years. Last fall, 15,790 full- and part-time undergraduates enrolled at Trident Tech. At USC’s Columbia campus, 21,385 were enrolled. Those numbers are based on a comparison of public colleges and universities in South Carolina.

Thornley attributed the rapid increase to more students trying to improve their skills to make themselves more marketable in the economic downturn; Trident Tech offering more programs at more locations; and the school’s relatively low cost compared with many of the state’s other colleges and universities.

The college has three campuses: the main campus in North Charleston, the downtown Palmer campus and the Berkeley campus. And it announced Wednesday that it will open another campus in the fall in Mount Pleasant. It also offers classes at other community-based sites.

Thornley said the college is able to expand in tough economic times when state support is declining because it works in partnership with other organizations. And it’s important to keep expanding to meet students’ needs, she said.

“The last thing I want is to close the door on any program and say to a student, ‘We have no more room for you,’ ” she said.

Shannon Newcombe, a Trident Tech student working toward an information systems specialist associate degree, said she initially chose Trident Tech because she heard its computer-related programs had a good reputation and because it was a school she could afford to attend.

But Newcombe, 25, who worked for several years after graduating from high school, said she really likes the student-centered approach at Trident Tech. Her professors are very supportive, she said.

She said there are a lot more people on the campus, and in her classes, each semester. The only time she feels a negative impact from the enrollment is when she tries to find a parking spot.

But the few challenges are worth it, Newcombe said, because she already has received job offers, and she hasn’t even graduated yet.
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Cathy Almquist, Trident Tech’s director of institutional research, said the college makes sure students are getting great service even with the growing enrollment. A survey of the last graduating class found 98 percent of students were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience at the school. And in a student body survey in the fall, students rated Trident Tech higher than its peer institutions on 68 out of 70 items, Almquist said.

Thornley said college staffers are handling the growth by working harder. And school leaders continue to reach out to others in the community for support and to look for new ways to offer programs.

She also said there simply isn’t any downside to the school’s growth. And she envision’s Trident Tech one day having the largest student enrollment in the state. “We’ve got what students need,” she said. “We’re a solution to their dilemma.”