BACKGROUND
History
The passage of the General Obligation bond in November 1994 provided $500,000
for the development and construction of a 5,000 gross square foot (GSF) education
center in the Sun Lakes/Sun Bird communities area. Its mission and purpose is
to serve the needs of the expanding senior population of the Southeast Valley
with program offerings including credit and non-credit courses. The District's
Governing Board approved the conceptual development of the Sun Lakes Center (SLEC) on November 28, 1995. The SLEC Advisory Board was formed in February
1995 and began offering non-credit classes in September of that year.
On site courses were initially offered in the fall of 1997. Non-credit and
credit computer literacy classes were offered, as well as credit and non-credit
personal enrichment classes. In the fall of 1998, the Institute of Learning in
Retirement - New Adventures in Learning for Seniors (NAILS) was introduced.
Population
Credit seeking student enrollments complement non-credit seeking students with
the primary emphasis placed on non-credit course offerings. In 2001, approximately
85% of the enrollment was in non-credit classes, while only 15% was in credit
general education. Facility capacity to support all classes has been constant
since SLEC opened. Almost the entire credit enrollment is in BPC or CIS courses,
which covers Computer Operating Systems, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, and Internet.
World Religions and Spanish 115 are two other courses that have been taught in
multiple years. Current projections indicate the SLEC has the potential to grow
steadily through 2010.
The increase in non-credit enrollment is a result of several factors. One is
the college-wide goal to increase the number of credit students per section,
thus causing many smaller sections at SLEC to be cancelled. A second is more
emphasis by the Advisory Board on non-credit course offerings. The third is the
partnership with NAILS resulting in the consumption of more classroom resources
and the fundamental direction of the Center to serve the senior community needs.
Moreover, many of the senior residents do not necessarily want or need college
credit. On the other hand, the demographics of the surrounding community are
changing to a more age-balanced community, indicating the need to serve a more
diverse community with increasing numbers of high school and college-aged residents
over the next eight years.
The increase in non-credit enrollments is a direct result of the increased
use of facilities by NAILS as well as requests by the Advisory Board for more
non-credit opportunities, especially in computer literacy.
The CGCC Institutional Research office has studied the MAG and City of Chandler
population trends and growth projections and has determined that by the fall
of 2010 CGCC at SLEC could have approximately 750 credit seeking students accounting
for approximately 300 FTSE. However, the senior population desires a facility
focused on their needs and it is not likely that both populations can be fully
served given current space constraints.
Demographics
What began as a retirement community at the southern most edge of Maricopa County,
the greater Sun Lakes community is now becoming an increasingly younger community.
As the expanding population grows younger, so do the students attending SLEC.
It is estimated that SLEC will grow from about 50 credit students per term to
roughly 200 credit students over the next ten years.
