By Jennifer Gonzalez

While walking down the hallway of a building on her campus one afternoon, Gayle Greene, an associate vice president at Wake Technical Community College, noticed something unsettling. A lot of the classrooms had only a handful of students.

That was a marked difference from mornings and evenings, when courses are typically full and waiting lists are the norm.

The morning and evening congestion had led to other problems on the college's Northern Wake campus, in Raleigh, N.C. Finding a parking space had become nearly impossible for students, and the library was always crowded. What the college needed was fewer students during the congested hours and more in the off-peak afternoon hours.

Ms. Greene said that was her reason for proposing "afternoon college," which begins this fall as a pilot program on the Northern Wake campus. Open only to recent high-school graduates who intend to attend full time and transfer to four-year institutions, the program will guarantee admission to required courses and allow for three-day weekends.

Students who sign up will take four classes every day, Monday through Thursday, between 2 and 6:20 p.m. They will have no classes on Friday. The Northern Wake campus was selected for the pilot program because its students tend to be younger than those at Wake Tech's other four campuses.

"If we hadn't tried this, classes would already be full by now," Ms. Greene said in early July. As of August, many slots were still available for the afternoon college, a sign that the pilot program might be loosening the college's enrollment crunch.

Serving More Students

The afternoon-college schedule can accommodate as many as 1,000 students. That translates into 110 new classes. So far 600 students have registered for the program, with about 30 students signing up each day. Fall classes begin on August 16.

If the program is successful, the college might begin to offer it at its other campuses, Ms. Greene said. Success will be determined by the number of students who decide to take part. The closer the program gets to the goal of 750 to 1,000 students, the more likely it is that the program will be replicated.

About 6,200 students attend the Northern Wake campus, and the college's total enrollment at all campuses is about 70,000.

Wake Tech, like many community colleges, has seen a large increase in enrollment in recent years, mainly because of the sagging economy. Enrollment has grown by 22 percent over the last three years.

The growth has led community colleges to become creative, with some offering classes at midnight and others as early as 6 a.m. Hybrid classes, taught partly online and partly in the classroom, also are increasingly being added to academic schedules.

George R. Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, said he liked Wake Tech's afternoon-college concept. The college has come up with a creative way to better use its buildings while also establishing a structure that could help students learn, he said. Research has shown that students do well academically when they learn in a structured format, such as when they have a set schedule or take classes in particular blocks of time, Mr. Boggs said.

Making the Pitch

Wake Tech began to market its afternoon-college concept last fall by reaching out to academic counselors at nearby high schools. The pitch to students is that they can sleep in and not have to go to the campus on Friday, giving them a three-day weekend.

"I've taught at 8 in the morning, and it isn't the best time for some students," said Ms. Greene, chuckling. "I'm hoping students like the alternative we are offering."

Another benefit to students who opt for the afternoon college is a guarantee that they will get into the classes they need to attend full time and stay on track to transfer in two years. Right now, Ms. Greene said, that doesn't always happen because entry-level classes fill up quickly. Some students manage to cobble together a full-time schedule, but they end up having to take classes at inconvenient times or attend classes at multiple campuses.

Ms. Greene said the only way for a community college to grow and serve the needs of its students is to be innovative.

"It is our mission to serve people even when budgets are tight," Ms. Greene said. "When you have limited space, you have no choice but to get creative."