Expanding horizons | Accommodating a surge of laid-off workers and a growing interest in the trades, Northern Maine Community College welcomes a colossal class
Photo/Courtesy NMCC
Tim Crowley, president of Northern Maine Community College, says a slumping economy and new, cutting-edge programs have fueled the school's high enrollment
On Aug. 24, classes started for Northern Maine Community College’s biggest incoming class in memory. The Friday before the semester began, first-year students numbered 581, and President Tim Crowley expects that number has only grown during the first two weeks of the semester. He calls it a “healthy jump” over the past two falls, which averaged about 420 new students at the Presque Isle college.
The reasons behind this year’s surge are both good and bad. The slumping economy has meant lots of layoffs in Aroostook County, where unemployment rates this year hit a high of 11.5% in April, mostly affecting paper mill workers and those in the lumber industry. “It has pushed people to go back to college,” Crowley says, adding that 120 of the 581 students are laid-off workers.
NMCC has been “proactive” in working with those laid off, he says. For example, the college accommodated a group of 30 unemployed students — most laid off from Fraser Paper or other organizations dependent on Fraser — by beginning a special semester in March, instead of forcing them to wait until the fall to enroll. “We thought it was important to address the need when it was there, and it has a long-term payoff for the students and the college as well,” Crowley says.
Most unemployed students gravitate to the school’s trade and technical programs such as the plumbing and heating program, which Crowley says is over capacity. Other popular programs are health care-related, such as the medical assisting and medical coding programs. The growing composites sector has generated more interest in the precision manufacturing program.
Crowley also attributes the boost in interest to the college’s enrollment task force, which spent about a year studying how to increase awareness about the school and its programs. The task force wrapped up last spring. “There’s more public information we’re getting out to people about what we’re doing, and we’ve gotten a positive response,” Crowley says.
New, cutting-edge programs have also fueled enrollment. This year NMCC launched its wind power technology program, which drew over 60 applicants for a scant 18 spots. In the face of such popularity, the college decided to double the program’s size to 36, eventually taking 40, and hire an additional faculty member. The program is unique in the New England region, and has already sent students on internships at the Kibby Mountain wind farm site currently under construction in Franklin County. “There will be jobs in that industry,” Crowley says. He’s also excited about a new partnership with neighboring University of Maine at Presque Isle, which recently built a wind turbine on its campus and has agreed to let NMCC students use it as a facility for safety training.
The program has been so popular that the college is grappling with whether to accept more students next year. “The ability to provide instruction to another group of 40 students is a tremendous stretch for us,” Crowley says.
Already, handling this year’s influx of students has been challenging, as NMCC has seen a $400,000 cut in its annual budget. The inability to add many more staff and faculty members has led the college to increase the size of its classes and offer more evening and weekend classes. Student and financial services staff have expanded their hours and worked more closely with the staff at the Presque Isle Career Center. Crowley expressed his gratitude for the many employees who agreed to work more hours and increase their teaching loads to accommodate more students. “The faculty and staff have been willing to really stretch,” he says.
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