AUGUSTA – More Maine Community College System students will be able to experience dormitory life after the board of trustees on Wednesday unanimously authorized President John Fitzsimmons to begin negotiations with a Vermont-based company to design and construct new residence halls at three campuses, including Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.

Costing an estimated $22.4 million, the new dormitories will be built at EMCC, Central Maine Community College in Auburn and Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. The three new facilities will expand housing capacity by approximately 650 beds.

The project is necessary to ease “pent-up demand” for housing which has resulted from an increase in enrollment – particularly of younger students – said MCCS trustee Daniel Wathen, who made the motion to approve the measure during a regularly scheduled board meeting at the community college system office in Augusta.

Enrollment of recent high school graduates, many of whom want to live on campus as part of the full college experience, has jumped by 50 percent during the past three years. That growth is expected to continue.

A housing crunch has forced some campuses, including EMCC, to put students up at local motels and other facilities.

“Expanding housing is critical if we are to meet current demand and continue attracting more young students into college,” said Fitzsimmons.

During an interview after the meeting, he said the community college system is “ready, willing and excited to play a role” in helping more Maine residents go on to college.

Increasing the number of college graduates in Maine is one of the goals identified in a new report issued by a committee created by Gov. John Baldacci to plan an integrated educational system for the state.

But Fitzsimmons, who was a member of the committee, said that while it’s great to have “lofty goals,” the Legislature needs to provide the resources to ensure that the community college system has the buildings and the faculty and staff to accommodate those additional students.

“We have to get serious about the practical means to achieve that goal – where is the investment of funds?” he said.

He noted that over the past three years, the number of MCCS students has increased by 3,300, while the number of full-time employees has fallen from 790 to 783.

“It won’t be long before we have to cap enrollment” because the infrastructure won’t be there, he said.

Meanwhile, the new construction projects will be funded through the community college system’s revenue bonding authority and will be paid off with room charges by students living in the facilities.

The construction projects had been planned for some time, and Wednesday’s action had nothing to do with the failure of an education bond at the ballot box on Nov. 8.

The residence halls will be designed and built by Pizzagalli Construction Co., which is based in Burlington, Vt., but has satellite offices in Maine.

Groundbreaking is planned for next summer or fall and the facilities could be ready as early as fall 2007.

Fitzsimmons said the new dormitories will provide better access to students who live far from a college campus and will eliminate the need to duplicate programs.

Currently, 915 – or 9 percent of students enrolled in degree programs – live on campus or at area facilities. Of the 915 students, about 275 are living off-campus.

Also at the meeting, trustees recognized four Northern Maine Community College students, who received a gold medal at the 2005 Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society’s International Student Games in Chicago last month.

The winning students from an NMCC program on design, installation and maintenance of automatic process control systems are: Bruce Ayotte of Presque Isle, Peter Starr of Mapleton, Jason Cote of Caribou, and David Hutchinson of Houlton. Their instructor and adviser Charles Kelley also was recognized.