After three consecutive years of falling enrollment, the VCCCD is experiencing an increase in student enrollment, which brings with it more funds from the State of California as well as inconvenience and discomfort for students fighting for seats and parking lots at crowded campuses.On Sept. 4, the district wide headcount was up 5.11 percent from 30,848 students last year on August 29, 2006.Moorpark College enrollment was up 7.96 percent to 14,323 students from last year’s headcount of 12,405 students. Ventura College enrollment increased 5.94 percent from 11,931 students to 12,640. Oxnard College experienced an enrollment increase of 3.01 percent from 6,280 students to 6,469.The amount of 123 million dollars for the general unrestricted budget was presented before the Board of Trustees for approval Sept. 12. The college campuses are ready to put that money to good use.”The Board of Trustees has said publicly that they are going to make the VCCCD the best community college district in California and eventually the nation,” said Dr. James Meznek, Chancellor of the VCCCD.But the additional students also made seats and parking scarce especially for the first couple of weeks. “Even if I find a spot, I get nervous because it’s so crowded and I’m scared my car will get hit,” said second year English major, Sara Brinkley, of Moorpark College.The increase in enrollment comes after six semesters of decreasing enrollment along with connected state funds. Many speculate that the decrease was the effect of rising gas prices and the increase of enrollment fees on all three campuses.”We’re going to put money back in the classrooms. We’ve got some catching up to do,” said Eva Conrad, Ph.D. and President of Moorpark College. “We will buy more supplies and computers for the classrooms. Our goal is to look at things that have been broken and that we’ve had to ignore, and then fix them.”Ventura College is also optimistic about their future prospects. “We’re replacing several of our older buildings with new facilities with larger and more efficient classrooms and expanding our Distance Education program which will allow us to grow with very little impact on facilities,” said Dr. Tom Kimberling, Vice President of Ventura College.Because of the increased funding, all the campuses are either adding more classes and programs or restoring previously underfunded programs to benefit their students. “We haven’t initiated any new programs although we’ve been able to restore in part some of the programs which were severely cut during the past several years such as Agriculture, Multi Media, Foreign Language and even Journalism,” said Kimberling.Moorpark College, however, will be adding new classes.”We have added programs like English as a Second Language and the Program for Accelerated College Education, and we have gone to a two-day a week schedule to help students save on gas,” said Jeanne Brown, public relations of Moorpark College.Ventura College, for the first time this summer, offered dual enrollment for both summer and fall semesters to help students plan their school schedule more efficiently. A drop in fees is planned for the spring semester. Fees will go down from $26 to $20 a unit. VCCCD is anticipating another increase in enrollment to take place due to the reduced fees.