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WENTWORTH — While businesses battling the economy continue to downsize, Rockingham Community College is opening its doors to more students than ever.

The college has a record enrollment this year, and classrooms across the campus are feeling the weight of extra students.

Robert Lowdermilk, vice president for student development, said enrollment is up about 20 percent this semester from last fall.

“Our enrollment looks like it will exceed 2,600,” Lowdermilk said, adding that typical enrollment at the college is 2,100 to 2,200 students.

Lowdermilk points to the economy as the main reason why enrollment has ballooned at community colleges across the state.

Many people who have been laid off are returning to school, and some recent graduates who once might have chosen a larger university are giving community colleges a second look to save money, he said.

In Guilford County, GTCC also reported a record enrollment — 13,520 students, an increase of 2,233 students from last year.

The state hasn’t given the schools any extra money to deal with the increased enrollment.

RCC President Robert Keys said the 2009-10 budget initially gave the community college system a 4.7 percent increase over last year.

But, Keys said, Gov. Bev Perdue asked for a 5 percent reversion from state agencies 10 days after signing the budget.

RCC officials said they had planned for problems such as crowded classrooms that would be created by the additional students.

“Our faculty and our deans have worked very hard to address those issues,” Lowdermilk said. “Some classroom capacities have been increased, and we have had to add sections of courses.”

Vacant positions have been frozen, and full-time faculty members have been asked to teach additional courses. More part-time faculty members were hired to take on teaching responsibilities, administrators said.

While some students might not have gotten their first choice of classes, Keys said he was pleased the college did not turn away any students. “We’ve had to expand our schedule and hours of operation so we could use the facilities that were available to us,” he said.

Most of the available seats for the seven programs within the industrial technologies division at RCC were filled during the summer registration period, said Dean Ted Currin.

But Currin said the enrollment surge has his division stretching itself to accommodate more students.

Some classes that normally would have no more than 18 students have nearly 30.

“We actually did bump the cap on a lot of our classes,” Currin said.

Currin said it’s “fairly unique” that all the programs in the industrial technologies division are full, but faculty who assisted students during registration wanted to offer the programs to as many of them as possible.

“A lot of arm-twisting was going on there at the end, and we tried our best to accommodate as many students as we could,” he said. “And in this division, we’re limited by space and by equipment and supply resources, and there are also safety issues.”

Currin said the classes where he allowed additional students are more lecture-based and have less hands-on activity with machinery.

Tim Parrish, an assistant professor, said he’s noticed an enrollment increase in his developmental and freshman English classes.

Parrish, who is teaching an extra course this semester, said the additional students will translate into about 250-300 papers he’ll have to read this semester.

“The big thing will be getting those papers graded,” he said.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126,or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com