Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Maine’s community colleges are reporting an 8 percent increase in the number of applications for the 2008-09 academic year. Applications are up by over 900 to 12,200 as of early August, and that number is expected to continue to grow over the next few weeks. Though upbeat about the statistics, Timothy Crowley, president of Northern Maine Community College, said the skyrocketing costs of oil prices may cause people to make a choice between heating their homes and attending classes.
“We’re excited that the applications are up … that’s a very good trend. People are losing jobs and changing jobs, and they see the community college as an opportunity to get re-trained and re-educated and get back into the workforce, so that’s good,” he said. “We’re also seeing more and more students right out of high school apply, so the initial information in terms of application increase is exciting.
“The caution is that the economy is sort of a double-edge sword. In some cases it drives people to us, but on the other side of the coin, people are struggling with real challenges particularly the rising costs of energy, both for commuter students and heating peoples’ homes,” said Crowley. “Challenging decisions about college are going to come when people start to balance those heating and economy issues with the cost of education. Initially people are saying they’re going to go to school, but if we see a real jump in oil prices, I would certainly be concerned about what we’re going to see in terms of the number of students. If people have to worry about heating their homes, they’re going to take care of those things first.”
The colleges reporting the greatest growth in applications are Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield (up 18 percent), NMCC (up 12.8 percent), York County Community College in Wells (up 10.9 percent), and Central Maine Community College in Auburn (up 10.5 percent). Southern Maine Community College in South Portland has seen a 6.6 percent increase in applications over this time last year. Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor is up 1.8 percent. Washington County Community College is down 9.4 percent, due in part to the fact that many of those laid off from Louisiana Pacific and Domtar in the past few years have already enrolled or completed retraining at the college.
Demand for online courses also continues to grow, a likely result of high gas prices. Kennebec Valley Community College, which has more students enrolled in online courses than any other community college in the state, reports a 14.5 percent increase in the number of students registered to date for online courses.
System officials attribute the increase to a weak economy and uncertain job prospects. When the economy softens, the state’s community colleges typically see an increase in both applications and enrollment.
“People who are unemployed or underemployed, high school graduates who are just starting out, and workers who need to upgrade their skills are all knocking on our doors,” said MCCS President John Fitzsimmons. “Maine doesn’t have an aspirations problem, it has an access problem. We are doing everything in our power to keep the dream of a college education affordable and accessible. The challenge is finding funding to hire more faculty and staff.”
Crowley said there are things the college is doing to make the financial crunch more tolerable for its students.
“We’re looking to try to provide transportation connections for people so that the commuter students have some way of getting back and forth,” he said. “We’re also looking at what we can do to deliver distance courses and how we can do that, and how we schedule classes. All of those things are on the table. We’re looking at a lot of different alternatives at this point.
“The news on the applications is obviously good news,” said Crowley, “but we really don’t know what the impact of the economy is going to be on people. The good news is that it sends people to college for education; the bad news is that they may get here and find that they can’t stay. It’s not so much about how many people are coming through the front door; it’s really about how many students are graduating and completing their educational goal. We want to keep our eye on that ball, too.”
The growth in applications for the coming academic year continues the System’s dramatic enrollment growth since the transition from technical to community colleges in 2003. Over the past five years, degree seeking enrollment at the state’s seven community colleges has grown by 55 percent.
Crowley said this year the college has processed 709 applications in comparison with 612 this time last year.
“We’ve seen a pretty healthy jump here,” he said. “From the college’s standpoint we’re in a good position. Our enrollment looks like it’s going to be up, but the caution is we’ve got this elephant in the room which is the economy, which drives students to us but could take them away. I’m excited and optimistic, but also realistic.”
The first day of classes at NMCC is Monday, Aug. 25.
