Moorpark College aims to increase student enrollment rates to receive additional state funding. The necessity for Moorpark College to start a marketing plan to increase public image was discussed at the Ventura County Community College District Fall Forum on Aug. 27.

“The future we have is to try to grow the community colleges back closer to where they were before the recession, and that’s a lot of students,” said Vice Chancellor of Business Services Brian Fahnestock. “We need to grow! Sales is everything.”

The current state model allocates money depending on the campus size in relation to active students, and Moorpark College can increase their funding should the number of students increase.

Student enrollment is calculated by Full Time Enrollment, or FTE. A typical class at Moorpark College which holds 30 students produces around three FTE’s. According to Fahnestock, in order to increase Moorpark College funding there needs to be a FTE increase of around 700.

“Changing people’s perspectives are critical to our growth,” said Chancellor Jamillah Moore. “We [the district] are going to set aside some of our reserves to do a marketing plan for the next few years.”

While support from the district may prove necessary, it is not the end-all-solution. Moore said that while the district is willing to give money to boost marketing, how that money is spent is at the discretion of the individual campus.

“We do things district wide,” said Moore, “but we leave [marketing decisions] up to the campus.”

Moorpark College must then come up with its own marketing plan to improve public image and recruit more Raiders. How that will be accomplished is a decision the college still needs to discuss.