The numbers don’t lie! Enrollment is up at Western Nebraska Community College. According to the 10-day report released by the institution, full time enrollment for the Fall 2009 semester is 1138 students. Full time enrollment for Fall 2008 was 987. This is an increase of 151 (14.7 percent) students.Institutional Research Director Maria Barkeloo said one of the driving factors in the increase in enrollment is the economy.“What you find in an economic downturn is people making the decision to go back to school and retrain,” Barkeloo said.Also up over last year is online enrollment.Barkeloo said that online enrollment this semester is 31 versus 18 last fall. The spike in enrollment, both online and on campus, has driven up the school’s REU number. REU is a number based on the weight of a class and is used by the state to reimburse the college.Last year WNCC had an REU number of 1105.86. For this year that number has risen to 1153.26, an increase of  47.4 units.The department that has seen the most growth is Nursing. Roger Hovey, WNCC Registrar said there is currently a waiting list for the program.“Nursing is going gangbusters,” Hovey said.The increase in numbers, be it students or REU’s, can be attributed to more than just the economy though.“We have a staff that is very active in recruiting for their departments,” said Carla Stein, Associate Dean of Student Services.“We have to credit this to the quality faculty we have,” Stein said.Stein said the school is always delighted when enrollment is up. But the focus now has to be to next semester.“We all know how important retention is,” Stein said.Last year from the Fall 2008 semester to Spring 2009 the school saw a retention rate of 80 percent, said Barkeloo. From fall of 2008 to the current semester, that retention is clocked at 55 percent.Something that Barkeloo said is “really fairly good.”