Community college leader sees system thriving

DEDHAM – The Maine Community College System will stay accessible and affordable and will continue to offer mostly occupational programs as well as increase its involvement with the business community.

Those were some of the pledges made Wednesday by Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons during the annual breakfast meeting of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce.

At least 80 percent of the programs offered by the community colleges will be in occupational areas, Fitzsimmons vowed to area businesspeople who met at the Lucerne Inn.

Some Mainers were concerned that occupational programs would fall by the wayside when the seven technical colleges changed to a full-fledged community college system last July, Fitzsimmons said.

Instead, enrollment in the career programs grew by 11 percent in the last year, fueled by a liberal studies program that started about four years ago, he said.

The liberal studies program was a good fit for students who at first weren’t sure about a career path but then “got excited” about a particular occupation, he said.

Changing the name of the vocational technical institutes to community colleges last year also served to highlight the availability of the liberal studies program to prospective students, Fitzsimmons said.

“Our liberal studies program may become the best recruitment tool our occupational programs have ever seen,” the president said.

The community college name change has resulted in an influx of younger students, he added. This year, the number of those who enrolled right out of high school increased by a record 26 percent.

Also, health care and computer programs are attracting students who have attended college or who already have four-year degrees but can’t find jobs, he said.

Students from both public and private universities “are coming back to pick up an occupational skill to match up with the economy.”

Ninety-five percent of community college graduates are placed in jobs or continue their education, with 98 percent of employed graduates finding jobs in Maine, according to Fitzsimmons.

The community college system is committed to increasing the number of students in degree programs from 8,900 to 12,000 and the number of students taking credit courses from 11,000 to 16,000, he said.

Maintaining the $2,040 annual tuition rate that has been frozen for five years is another goal, said Fitzsimmons, noting that the community college system in Maine is the only higher education system in the nation to freeze its tuition for this long.

“Price matters, especially in a state where the per capita income is 35th in the nation,” he said.

Another aim is to enhance the system’s relationship with adult education. According to a statewide agreement that local providers are putting into place, students who are not quite prepared for college or who lack the prerequisites for a particular major may take classes through adult education programs, Fitzsimmons said.

Students can save hundreds of dollars, he said, noting that a biology course needed for a nursing program costs $204 at the community college but only $35 through adult education.

Building partnerships with the private sector also is increasingly important because of budget constraints, the president said.

Financial help from Eastern Maine Medical Center enabled a program for surgical technicians at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, and Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft helped establish a nursing program in that community.

Eastern Maine Community College also has implemented a civil engineering program through a partnership with local engineering and construction firms that are paying for a faculty position and donating classroom equipment.

“There are all sorts of new partnerships all across the state where the private sector is working to help meet its own needs and putting money on the table. It’s a new way of doing business,” he said.

The community college system is becoming more accessible, Fitzsimmons said. The system has expanded its online Web-based courses and has 2,500 students doing college work by way of their home computers.

“Everyone’s talked about online education as a way to recruit students from around the nation, but it has much more meaning serving students in our own state who have time and transportation problems,” he said.