Heartland Community College saw a slight dip in enrollment this fall. (Photo Courtesy Heartland Community College)

By Paul Morello

NORMAL - The Heartland Community College Board of Trustees approved the Fiscal Year 2013 budget at Tuesday night's meeting.

Spending and revenue are each set at $32.2 million, which is up 3.5 percent from last year.

The board also got 10th day enrollment numbers for the college. There are 5,324 students enrolled at Heartland this fall, a 4.2 percent drop compared to last year.

Heartland President Allen Goben said the budget takes into account the dip in enrollment, including a 6.4 percent decrease in total credit hours.

"We were flat to slightly up on our summer enrollment. We are down on fall enrollment, so it's always a challenge to figure out exactly where you're going to be, and predict the future, so to speak," he said.

The enrollment decrease amounts to 234 fewer students on campus this fall compared to last, Goben said.

"We feel like our spring enrollment is maybe going to show some signs of life compared to the fall, but we want to be very conservative in our projections," he said.

Despite the enrollment decrease, Goben said he is hopeful the college will not have to do any targeted personnel reductions this fiscal year. 

Paul Morello can be reached at paul.morello@cumulus.com.