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The newspapers recently reported that the President of the SUNY Fredonia College Council, Frank Pagano, said that increasing enrollment was the college's top priority.
Nationwide, college enrollment is down 8% since the start of the Pandemic in early 2020.
The decline in student populations at SUNY Fredonia and at JCC dwarf the national decline.
SUNY Fredonia president, Stephen Kolison, recently observed: "There's no secret we have declining enrollment over a 10 to 12 year period."
SUNY Fredonia has about 3,200 students now down from a high of about 5,000. That is a 36% decline in the student population.
President Kolison pointed to a decrease in local population as one of the extenuating circumstances explaining the huge decline in the student population.
Demonstrating President Kolison's point, Chautauqua County's population dropped by about 7,000 just from 2010 (135,000) to 2020 (128,000).
Think about the economic consequences for Chautauqua County with 1,800 fewer SUNY Fredonia students spending their (and often their parent's) money here. Chautauqua County's economy loses out on food sales, restaurant sales, lodging expense, spending on gas and repairs for student's cars, recreation spending, and all the County sales tax on those lost purchases.
It is reasonable to conclude that the White Inn in Fredonia fell on hard times, at least in part, due to the decline in the student population at SUNY Fredonia. The fewer the students, the less demand for hotel rooms by family and friends visiting students at the College.
The weak market for hotel rooms in downtown Fredonia has apparently resulted in the need for significant amounts of taxpayer money (grants) as well as Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency property tax breaks in order to induce a private developer to take a shot at reopening the White Inn
Think about the economic consequences of a smaller SUNY Fredonia as a business and major employer in Chautauqua County. When a full time associate professor is replaced with adjunct faculty, the County loses a professional earning a "family-sustaining living" with adjunct faculty earning modest stipends of $3,000 or so.
The fewer full time faculty members, the fewer houses and cars that are purchased in Chautauqua County. For every lost $30,000 car sale for example, the County loses its 4% share of the sales tax or $1,200.
The picture at JCC is even worse.
In August 2022, JCC reported to Chautauqua County government that since the 2011-12 academic year, full time equivalent student enrollment has declined from 3,889 to about 2,100. That is a depressing 46% drop.
The impact on Chautauqua County's economy is significant. Although JCC students are more likely to live at home compared to SUNY Fredonia students, 3,889 students poured a lot more money into Chautauqua County's (and Cattaraugus County's) economy than 2,100 students do.
With 46% fewer students, there would obviously be fewer full time employees of JCC to buy homes and cars here, to go to restaurants here and spend money on everything from newspaper subscriptions to donating to the United Way.
How can this declining enrollment at SUNY Fredonia and JCC be turned around?
Both SUNY Fredonia and JCC have tried to expand the geographical area from which they recruit students. This has been a logical route to pursue and, no doubt, some additional students have been attracted to those two colleges from that effort.
This effort has its limits since college enrollment is down across America. Presumably the vast majority of colleges are stepping up their recruiting efforts, just as SUNY Fredonia and JCC have.
A better, long-term answer is that Chautauqua County's population decline must be stopped and then reversed.
In 1950, New York State's population was 14,700,000. By 2020 New York State's population grew to 19,300,000, a 31% increase. In contrast, over those same years, Chautauqua County's population dropped from 133,000 to 126,000, a 5% decline.
The only obvious way to regain population is to add thousands of new jobs in Chautauqua County. The New York State Department of Labor reported that in November 2008 there were 62,000 employed in Chautauqua County. By November 2022 there were only 49,000 employed, a decrease of 13,000.
Focusing on solar farm development and the conversion of abandoned corporate headquarters and abandoned schools into apartments is not a strategy for job growth. Solar farms in Chautauqua County will be helpful to begin reducing burning fossil fuels to meet our electrical power needs. They are not, however, a source of more than a handful of new jobs. Recently, for example, the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency gave a Payment In Lieu of Tax agreement to a solar farm developer. The newspaper story said the solar farm would create ¢ (one-half) of a job.
Once construction is over to turn an old office building or school into apartments, there are virtually no full-time jobs created to assist in the goal of growing our population, again. While a given community may be pleased to see an abandoned building put to use as an apartment building, unless Chautauqua County begins to grow its population, the addition of more housing units just weakens the demand for housing already available in those communities.
Helping to create family-sustaining jobs is not easy. Without thousands of new jobs, however, Chautauqua County's population decline will not be stopped and then turned into population growth. While the task is not easy, it can be done.
Once the population of Chautauqua County grows, again, both SUNY Fredonia and JCC have the chance to grow again, as well.
Fred Larson is a former Chautauqua County Attorney from 1998-2005 and served as an adjunct faculty member of SUNY Fredonia from 2005-2013.