By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Central Maine Community College is expected to enroll more than 2,000 students this fall, making it the largest college in the area.

But while its student body now trumps the 1,700-student Bates College, with its sprawling Lewiston campus and multimillion-dollar academic centers, the community college has just four buildings and three dorms.

The growing college will put up 25 to 30 students at a hotel for the school year because it doesn’t have enough beds on campus. It will offer courses in Salem, Newcastle and Farmington and provide more Saturday classes in Auburn to help ease classroom crowding.

It is looking to double its dormitory space and reconfigure space to squeeze in classrooms.

“I think we’re clearly in a position where we can support another building,” said Dean of Students Charles Collins.

Explosion

Established in 1964, the school started as a vocational center with 48 students and four programs. Enrollment increased steadily for decades, then suddenly exploded over the last several years.

In 2000, the college had about 1,280 students. In 2002, it had 1,600. In 2004, it had about 1,900.

This year, officials have already received more than 2,000 applications for first-year slots, the most applications ever. About 40 percent of applicants attend.

When Bobbi Foster’s father started taking classes there in 1997, there were more than 500 students. Now there are four times as many. The 20-year-old Hebron resident sees them filling the halls, the library, the lounge areas. Many of them are kids she knew in high school.

“Students I thought would never go to college, I’ve seen them decide a community college is the way to go,” she said.

She believes the price tag draws many people in. The Community College System froze tuition for six years at $2,076 a year, only recently going up about $180.

She also believes many students like to start at the community college then transfer to a university for the last two years of a four-year degree. In recent years, the Community College System made such transfers seamless for some students.

Collins believes the boom is due to something even simpler.

“I think the thing that kicked it off for us was the name change a few years ago to community college,'” Collins said.

Before 2003, the school was known as a technical college. Many people didn’t think of it when they were looking for a liberal arts degree.

New buildings

All community colleges are seeing their enrollment stay steady or grow this year.

At Central Maine Community College, officials celebrate the 2,000 mark. But they are also searching for ways to ease the strain.

The college doubled the size of its cafeteria in January and is now looking to do the same for its dorm space. All of its 130 dorm beds are full and the school will start housing some students at the Fireside Inn on Washington Street in Auburn. It hopes to build a 160-bed residence hall for next fall.

It added a building three years ago but now needs a science building with full lab space. Officials hope voters will approve a higher education bond issue in November, giving them the $715,000 they need to start.

In the meantime, they’re looking at ways to turn storage areas into workshops and workshops into classrooms. Faculty started offering classes off campus, both to ease the strain on the Auburn space and to bring courses to more rural areas, where students demand them.

Officials already run Auburn classes into the evening and on Saturdays. They plan to do that even more.

“We’re running pretty much full tilt during the day,” Collins said.

He predicts even more growth, with 2,500 by 2010. With some planning, he believes the college will be able to handle it.

“There are still pockets to add and grow,” he said.