Ohlone Data Source - Institutional Research Office

Demographics

Narrative Summary: District

Ohlone College District encompasses three cities within Alameda County: Fremont, Newark, and Union City. The population of the district is 312,753 residents, with the dominant ethnic groups being relatively equally divided between White (37%) and Asian (36%); Hispanics (18%) represent the third largest ethnic group in the district. Thirty-eight percent of district residents are foreign born. In the city of Fremont, where 54.4% of Ohlone students reside, there is a culture of attainment: of the 67% of residents age 25 or over, 26.5% of the population (40% of the 25+ population) holds a baccalaureate degree and another 16.7% (25% of 25+) have earned graduate or professional degrees. Additionally, of the employed civilian population over the age of 16, nearly half (49.8%) work as management or as professionals.

Ohlone College reflects the ethnic distribution of the district, though the Asian student population at 34.6% is larger than the 30.4% of White students, who are 6.6% under-represented. Hispanic students are the third largest student population, although they are under-represented by 5.6% compared to district residents. Filipino/Pacific Islanders, with a student population of 8.4%, are well above the district total of 0.5%.

There are three major high school districts that serve the Ohlone College District: Fremont Unified in Fremont, Newark Unified in Newark, and New Haven Unified in Union City. The combined student populations for grades 9-12 of those three districts provide a glimpse of prospective students. Notably, 28.1% of high school students in the district are Asian, 26.6% are white, 18.0% are Hispanic, and 11.0% are Filipino/Pacific Islander. African-Americans, at 7.7% of the high school population, are above both the district’s 4.0% and the college’s 4.5% populations.

Narrative Summary: Students

After a low-enrolled 2004-05 academic year, Ohlone College has increased the fall enrollment by 9.1% in each of the following years, and fall headcount has grown from 9,963 in Fall 2004 to 10,867 in Fall 2005 to 11,859 in Fall 2006. Although FTES remained static between 2004-05 and 2005-06, it increased to 8027 for the 2006-07 year, a rise of 5.5%.

With the budget-imposed downsizing of the previous Newark site in Fall 2003—which at one point generated about 900 FTES—Ohlone College found itself without room to grow. A new Newark campus was slated to open in Spring 2008, but the college still had to address the course needs of students. The virtual classroom was one answer, and distance learning opportunities were increased to meet student needs. Since Fall 2004, sections offered online have increased almost 200% (192.9%) and enrollment has increased 236.2%. In 2006-07, 836 FTES was generated through distance learning.

Fall 2006 FTES is at the highest point since Fall 2002, and is up 9.4% over Fall 2005 and up 8.4% over the previous five year average. Transferable credit makes up 70.4% of all courses—up from the previous five year average of 66.0%--and in Fall 2006, enrollment in transferable courses is up 11.4% over Fall 2005 and is up 25.6% over the previous five year average. Vocational credit is down 1.6% from the previous five year average, but up 4.7% over Fall 2005 and is at the highest point since Fall 2003. Basic skills credit is essentially at the same level as the previous five year average (257.4 compared to 259.6).

• Students age 19 or less increased by 28.2% from Fall 2005 to Fall 2006, increased 21.6% over the previous five year average, and were at the highest numbers since before Fall 2001.
• Students in age groups 30-34 and 40-49 decreased by 5.5% and 2.7% respectively from Fall 2005 to Fall 2006; the 30-34 group decreased by 8.4% over the previous five year average, but the 40-49 group increased by 2.8% over the previous five year average.
• Headcount of African-American students has increased by 28.6% over the previous five year average and headcount of Hispanic students has increased by 14.9% over the previous five year average. Asian students have increased by 5.3% over the previous five year average.
• Headcount of White students has decreased by 0.4% below the previous five year average.
• The disparity between both numbers and percentages of day and evening students is the greatest since before Fall 2001 with almost three times as many day as evening students.
• The ratio of full-time to part-time students has remained relatively constant since Fall 2001 despite targeted efforts to increase the number of full time students; the increase in numbers of full-time students reflects the increase in overall enrollment.
• The highest percentage of students entering Ohlone College (37%) are freshman high school graduates; next highest at 19% are concurrently-enrolled K-12 students, and 17% are students who already hold a baccalaureate degree.
• Fall 2006 had the highest numbers of students since before Fall 2001 who were concurrently-enrolled K-12 students, a 31.7% increase over the previous five year average.
• Fall 2006 had the highest numbers of students since before Fall 2001 who held a baccalaureate degree, a 32.6% increase over the previous five year average.
• The number of students enrolled as freshmen who did not possess a high school diploma decreased in Fall 2006 from the previous five year average of 629 to 125, a decrease of more than 80%.
• 19% of Fall 2006 students were first time students at Ohlone; 62% had been enrolled previously at Ohlone; 19% were concurrently-enrolled K-12 students.

Narrative Summary: Staff

• Percent of male staff is 2% higher than statewide average for both classified staff and for management.
• Diversity for total staff is comparable to statewide average (48% non-white for Ohlone, 49% non-white statewide), but Ohlone’s management is more diverse than the statewide average.
• Almost half (46%) of classified staff and more than 2/3 (68%) of management are older than 50 years of age.
• Percent of female faculty is 3% above the statewide average.
• Ohlone’s faculty is more diverse than the statewide average (37% non-white compared to 30% non-white statewide).
• Almost half of the faculty (48%) is older than 50 years of age, but this is below the statewide average of 53%.

In most categories, based either on headcount or on FTE, the number of staff serving students has increased more than proportionately with enrollment so that staff in Fall 2006 are serving fewer students per staff member than in Fall 2001. A notable exception is in the category of administration/management, where the number of staff has not grown at the same pace as student growth and administrators/managers have a proportionate student load 10.0% higher by headcount and 7.6% higher by FTE than in Fall 2001. If the category is divided between administrators and managers, the increase in proportionate student load is even more dramatic: an increase for administrators of 50.8% by headcount (from 491 students/administrator to 741 students/administrator) and 47.4% by FTE (from 163 FTES/FTE administrator to 240 FTES/FTE administrator).