AUBURN – A project to build a four-story dorm, doubling residency-student capacity at Central Maine Community College, was approved Wednesday by the Maine Community College System trustees.

Assuming the project receives the necessary environmental and building permits, construction on the $5.2 million dorm will begin in April. An estimated 150 students would move in during the fall of 2007, said college spokeswoman Annee Tara.

CMCC now has dorm space for 130 students.

The new building would allow 280 students to live at the Auburn college.

“It would allow us to continue to grow,” Tara said. “We’re expecting students who would come into the new dorm will fill up places in our technical career programs, programs not available everywhere.”

Those programs include machine tool technology, graphic arts, electronics, automotive technology, and architecture and civil engineering technology.

Enrollment at Maine’s community colleges has exploded in recent years.

In Auburn enrollment has doubled during the past seven years, Tara said. In some years the percentage of student growth has been in the double digits.

Over the past year, it was 8 percent. Current enrollment at CMCC is 2,100, Tara said. The annual tuition for Maine students is $2,220, housing is $5,050.

The new dorm built at the Turner Street complex will not cost taxpayers. A bond borrowed by the college system will be paid back through student room and board charges, Tara said.

– Bonnie Washuk

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