A recent report from the Albany Times Union reveals enrollment in New York State’s community colleges has fallen all over the last decade.

Monroe Community College has seen attendance drop by almost 40 percent.

The decline is attributed to a change in demographics such as lower birth rates, low unemployment, and competition. There are 19 other area colleges also vying for students to enroll.

For Monroe Community College, a shift in the job market has played a role in the decline in enrollment.

"We had Xerox, Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, big companies that became a little bit smaller or significantly smaller, and that would certainly affect our population, our demographics and therefore our enrollment," said MCC Associate VP of Enrollment Management Christine Casalinuvo-Adams.

Tasha Colton, a third-year student from Rochester, said the belief that students should go straight to a 4-year university has decrease.

However, she saw an advantage in choosing MCC. Choosing a community college allowed her to see what major she wanted to pursue, with committing to the finances of a university.

Casalinuvo-Adams said she believes the college’s biggest challenge is rightsizing.

"…Making sure that we are the right size reflecting the community, but also offering programs that are in demand," she said.

The goal of providing students with skills to become immediately employable remains the same.

"A hallmark of MCC is that we are convenient, flexible, offer the right programs at the right time for the students that want them," she said.

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello believes the enrollment drop can be turned into a positive for the school.

"There are a lot of open jobs right now,” he said. “We have between 10 and 20,000 that are available today. We're just not linking people to those jobs properly. I think there is a role for MCC to play in that."