LCC Enrollment Plunge?

LCC posts its annual enrollment statistics on its website.

On my blog I tend to instead share when a Fall term has notably higher or lower enrollment than the Fall term of the preceding year.

I mentioned that enrollment went up 20% in Fall 2009 (compared to Fall 2008) as the recession got worse and more adults needed career-related education because they or their spouse were dealing with job loss or instability.  The above chart showed that actually only became a 2.4% increase for the 2009 academic year.

I mentioned that enrollment down 10% in Fall 2013 (compared to Fall 2012) when new and wise restrictions kept students from using Federal financial aid without a long-term plan.  That became a -9.6% decrease for the 2013 academic year.

A recent e-mail to LCC staff from Adrienne Mitchell shared that enrollment is currently down about 20% for Fall 2014.  The term does not begin until the end of September, so that number may still change.  I wonder if the decrease will really be that large for either the upcoming term or the overall year.