JJC Reports Fall Enrollment Up Nearly 9%, Part-Time Up 11%

Joliet Junior College | August 12, 2026

Article Summary: President Dr. Clyne Namuo told Joliet Junior College trustees on Aug. 12 that active student enrollment for fall 2026 is up nearly 9% and tuition credit hours are up 6.53%, with part-time enrollment rising 11% ahead of the Aug. 24 start of classes.

Fall 2026 Enrollment Key Points:

Active student enrollment up nearly 9%; tuition credit up 6.53%; part-time students up 11%.

Growth reported in health sciences, public service, transfer and workforce programs, plus adult basic and continuing education.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s office has allocated $800,000 to JJC for the Entrepreneur and Business Center, previously announced.

First day of fall classes was set for Aug. 24, 2026.

JOLIET — The Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, received an enrollment report showing broad growth heading into the fall semester, in what President Dr. Clyne Namuo called an “encouraging” picture.

“We’ve got active student enrollment up nearly 9% there. We’ve got tuition credit up 6.53%,” Namuo said, presenting the figures to the board before the first day of classes on Aug. 24. He said adult basic education and continuing education numbers are also rising, telling trustees, “We’re seeing that population start to come back in numbers that we’re pretty happy with.”

Part-time enrollment is up 11%, Namuo said, with “particular growth” in the college’s health sciences and public service programs and in transfer and workforce programs generally.

Namuo credited front-line staff and faculty for the increase, describing employees working phones, meeting students face to face and setting what he said were new records for new student orientation in the event center. He also referenced Trustee Alicia Morales’s repeated challenge to the college community “to really think about the message we share with students, telling that story of who we are as an institution.”

Morales returned to the enrollment numbers in her closing remarks. “I’m looking forward to a safe and productive year and seeing that enrollment continue to increase,” she said. “Let’s keep talking up Joliet Junior College so we can keep seeing these students come back and that we don’t have to talk about a tuition increase anymore.”

The president’s report also covered a federal funding commitment. Namuo said he attended a private reception that day honoring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, organized by the county executive and including the mayor and other elected officials. He said Durbin’s office “has allocated $800,000” to the college for its Entrepreneur and Business Center, a figure the college has announced previously.

“What Dick Durbin has done for the state of Illinois, what he’s done for community colleges, oftentimes goes underappreciated because he’s done so many different things for the state,” Namuo said. He said he spoke with the senator for four to five minutes and raised the situation of students he described as “being forced back into the shadows, being either part of mixed-status families, and what that’s done to those students here at JJC.”

Namuo said he also told the senator’s Chicago director that the Entrepreneur and Business Center’s leadership, “despite receiving this big check, still maintains an entrepreneurial mindset, still maintains a startup mentality, to stretch dollars as far as they can.”

The report was received without a vote; the enrollment and grant figures were presented as information.