PRESQUE ISLE – With a major increase in student enrollment in the last three years, state aid that has not kept pace with the enrollment trend, and with a need in the state for thousands of skilled workers, the Maine Community College System has a lot to consider as it decides what the system should look like in the next five to eight years.

MCCS President John Fitzsimmons was at Northern Maine Community College Wednesday to talk about the future and to thank employees for their hard work in the last three years since the system switched from a technical college to a community college format.

“Their success and hard work put us on the right path,” Fitzsimmons said during a press conference Wednesday.

Since becoming a community college system in 2003, Fitzsimmons said student enrollment has increased by 42 percent – to 10,680 students. Fitzsimmons also said that in the last three years, 50 percent more high school graduates are entering college and 25 percent more students are transferring to four-year universities and colleges after attending community college.

Looking toward the future, Fitzsimmons said, the system has some significant issues to look at. The system has seen a 5.7 percent increase in state appropriations over three years, but because of the major increase in student enrollment, that number should have been more along the lines of 15 percent “just to keep up with what we have.”

Fitzsimmons and NMCC President Timothy Crowley pointed out that colleges have been stretched to their budgetary limits and need to invest in more full-time faculty members instead of adjuncts. Fitzsimmons pointed out that while enrollment has increased since 2003, the number of employees actually has dropped from 790 to 785.

The system also needs to look at private sector jobs in Maine that require one- and two-year degrees but are not being filled. Fitzsimmons said that there should be about 15,000 to 18,000 students in the community college system in order to address the 4,000 or so skilled positions available.

All of those issues, though, require money, and while Fitzsimmons said it was too early to talk specific numbers, the system is involved with two initiatives that it hopes will help.

The first one is a 12-member study panel created by Gov. John Baldacci that will analyze the gap between students in the system and skilled workers needed in the private sector. The group will also look at what the system should be doing to spur economic development, such as expanding programs that would require more money from the state. The panel is expected to report its findings to the governor and MCCS trustees by September.

The second initiative, “Envision the Future,” is being led by the system. Fitzsimmons said officials will talk with faculty, staff, students and administrators at all seven campuses in the state about what they want to see their college and the system become in the next five to eight years. The initiative is not expected to affect the systemwide organizational structure or governance. College reports will be drafted and sent to Fitzsimmons by January 2007 and reviewed by the board of trustees in April 2007.

Crowley said initial thoughts for NMCC’s report include the conversion of a facility on campus into an allied health education and training center to help deal with the state’s critical nursing shortage, and the addition of a transportation center, which would allow the college to increase its transportation-related programs.

An assumption of the initiative is that additional state funding will be provided to support the plans.

Fitzsimmons said that message officials are trying to get across is that “the system will have to slow down if there is no investment.”