AUBURN – Since Central Maine Technical College became Central Maine Community College five years ago, evidence of a growing number of students is in the parking lots.

“I’m looking out my office window, and the grass is packed with cars,” CMCC President Scott Knapp said Monday. “We’re building a fourth parking lot, but it’s not ready yet.”

The fifth anniversary of changing Maine technical colleges to Maine community colleges was observed Monday with officials touting the growing number of students, which was the goal.

Since 2002, enrollment in Maine’s community college has jumped 57 percent. At Central Maine Community College, enrollment has grown 43 percent in the same period, 13 percent in the past year, Knapp said.

Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons told a news conference that the number of students entering directly from high school has increased 65 percent in the past five years, 6.5 percent this year alone.

Officials said 4,283 more students are seeking degrees at the seven colleges now than were enrolled in 2002, the year before the community colleges were established.

Gov. John Baldacci called the community college system “a great Maine success story.” Five years ago he led the effort to create the community college system to make access to college easier, and allow community college graduates to more easily transfer their two years of credits to a four-year college or university.

“In five short years, Maine’s community colleges have proven that if Maine people have access to a low-cost, high quality education, they will respond,” Fitzsimmons said. “We built it, and they came.”

Fitzsimmons said Question 3 on November’s ballot includes $15.5 million in bonding for community colleges. He said that would be critical in meeting increases in demand.

Tremendous growth of the colleges has taxed facilities, Fitzsimmons said. Across the system, buildings and classrooms need to be renovated to make room for more students.

Since technical colleges became community colleges, more liberal arts, humanities and science courses have been offered, Knapp said.

“You can get the same things here typically that you’d get in your first two years” at any other institution, Knapp said. The cost for tuition and fees is about $3,000 a year, easily half the cost of other colleges or universities. The lower cost is critical, Knapp said. At $3,000 a year, “many of our students struggle to be here.” Higher tuition would mean some would not be in school, Knapp said.

While some worried becoming a community college would mean less focus on technical education, Knapp said not only has that not happened, enrollment in technical programs have increased. He knows why.

“Ten or 15 years ago if someone came to CMTC and said they didn’t know what they wanted to study, we would say, ‘Why don’t you go back home to think about it.'”

Now with expanded humanitarian and general study courses required for all programs, when a prospective student says they don’t know what they want to do, “we say, ‘You’re going to need English and social science. Take those and look around for a semester and figure out what you want to do,” he said.

Once on campus, students often see a program and career that appeals to them that they wouldn’t have known about if they weren’t on campus, Knapp said.