More than 62 percent of CCSN graduates are women

Jennifer Knight

Friday, May 16, 2003 | 10:02 a.m.

When Debra Blicharz, 43, graduates from the Community College of Southern Nevada today, she will be like the majority of her classmates in at least one way: She's female.

More than 62 percent of the associate's degrees granted at CCSN this year will go to women. That's up more than 3 percentage points from last year.

By comparison, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 59 percent of the bachelor's degrees handed out this week will go to women. That figure is up about 1 percentage point from last year.

Higher unemployment rates among women and services such as child care on campus are among the factors drawing more women to community colleges, officials said.

Fields such as nursing, education, dental hygiene and veterinary tech are popular fields among women at CCSN.

"A good number of our students are female single parents," said Fran Brown, dean of health sciences at CCSN. "Many of them are looking to upgrade their skills or their career."

In its three years of existence, CCSN's nursing program has gone from admitting 40 students a semester to 64, Brown said.

About 88 percent of nursing majors are female. About 93 percent who currently declare dental hygienics as a major are female, said Frank DiPuma, CCSN interim director of institutional research and planning.

"We're sort of in the breeze of whatever labor trends, economic trends or social trends are going on," DiPuma said. "And that affects our enrollment."

Two factors that schools are paying more attention to are convenience and child care needs.

"I think that a more universal look in higher education at the need for child care has allowed more women to come to college," said CCSN President Ron Remington. "And with a depressed economy, many men who may have intended to go to college are hanging onto their job."

Remington also said that CCSN allows easier access for returning students because it has several campuses.

Unemployment figures are also believed to play a part in the number of women enrolling in college.

Nationally, women who have a child under 18 had a 4.3 percent unemployment rate compared to 2.2 percent of men in the same situation. The unemployment rate for women without children is almost dead even with men.

"That's a really drastic figure," said Mary Riddel, the associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV. "I think there is a connection. If the unemployment rate is higher you have to get an education to go out and get a job."

Blicharz, an education major, plans to purse a bachelor's degree next.

"It's my halfway mark," Blicharz said.