AUBURN — In 1962, “Vocational-Technical Education for the Space Age” got the Maine Legislature talking.

The report said Maine needed to create two new schools.

One was almost built in Augusta; political clout got it here instead.

Androscoggin State Vocational Institute opened in downtown Lewiston in the fall of 1964, in a former Buick dealership, while the new campus was built in Auburn on 135 acres that had housed the city poor farm and a healthy pig population.

Now it’s Central Maine Community College, which turns 50 this year.

It recently sent students off to Harvard, Rutgers, Maine Maritime Academy and Bates College, and it graduates hundreds more each year into the community with associates degrees: nurses, mechanics, graphic designers and police.

“That was one of the greatest programs that could have come around the corner for Lewiston-Auburn, for me, especially,” said retired Lewiston fire chief, now-State Rep. Mike Lajoie, D-Lewiston, a member of the very first class.

In the past 10 years, it’s grown from 2,000 students to 3,000 — a 50 percent increase. Half of the students are traditional college-age. Roughly one-quarter transfer out after a year or two.

“If you get a degree from Harvard, no one will ask you where you spent your first two years,” said CMCC President Scott Knapp. “Ever.”

Now one of seven community colleges in Maine, it was the third to be founded in the state. It started by offering four programs that provided, quite literally, a good foundation.

“For our training, we would work,” Lajoie said. “Drafting would work on measurements. Carpentry would help with the carpentry needs. Automotive, we’d work on all the school vehicles, and electrical, they would learn by helping. Basically, we all had a hand in building that school.”

CMCC is up to 24 programs now, adding a new network security and computer forensics degree this fall. It’s part of a $13 million federal grant to enhance computer education across Maine’s community colleges.

Paired with the new degree are two new computer labs — one for simulations and one a testing center to demonstrate skills for certification from companies like Microsoft and Cisco.

“If you can show us (your skills), you get the credit, or if you can test out of it, you get the credit,” he said. “People who have all this background on their own will now be able to transfer it to a degree.”

The four original programs have stayed in its mix, Knapp said. “But it started as home wiring; now it’s electromechanical technology.”

Knapp has been college president since 1997. His office is in Jalbert Hall, named after Louis Jalbert, the Lewiston state representative and Appropriations Committee chairman who pushed for the school back in the ’60s. 

It’s a point of pride for him that Maine’s community colleges have the lowest tuition in New England. 

“We are the access institution,” Knapp said. “We know even at this tuition level, there are students that can’t afford to come to college — so every time we raise tuition a dollar, we think twice about the real necessity of doing that.”

Full-time tuition is $2,700 a year — more than 10 times higher than when Lajoie and John Cook enrolled in the automotive program in 1964. Cook is now the student services coordinator at Lewiston Regional Technical Center.

He said he always encourages his students to “take a good look at it, if it fits your budget.”

Both men enrolled straight out of high school.

“We didn’t realize that we, as we chose mascots and school colors, were creating history for Central Maine,” Cook said.

They debated choosing “The Eagles” or “The Hawks” as mascots. “The Mustangs” was better, they decided.

Lajoie’s father died when he was 13. He knew he wanted to be in the automotive industry but until CMCC opened, he also knew that the Southern Maine technical school was too expensive and too far away.

“To tell you the truth, I think somebody helped my mom with the tuition,” Lajoie said. “She wanted the best for her little boy. I believe I would not be where I am today and have had all the experiences I’ve had if I could not have gone to college at the vocational school. I had many great mentors there.”

Roughly 3,000 students will start school at Central Maine Community College on Sept. 2, with 275 living on campus. Some overflow will live in a Center Street hotel.

In honor of the 50th anniversary, the school plans a ground-breaking next month of a new four-story building, the first one that visitors will see on campus. It will also hang a plaque at 285 Main St. in Lewiston, for the former Buick dealership that’s now a hospital office building.

The past 50 years have been about meeting the community’s needs and transforming with it, Knapp said. So will the next 50.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at that; I think we’ll stay pretty good at that,” Knapp said. “I think we will do it on a bigger scale.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Dates in Central Maine Community College history

1964 — Opens as Androscoggin State Technical Institute with 104 students

1965 — Name changed to Central Maine Vocational Technical Institute

1976 — First New England Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation received

1987 — 430 students enrolled

1989 — Name changed to Central Maine Technical College

1997 — Enrollment passes 1,000

2003 — Name changed to Central Maine Community College

2005 — Enrollment passes 2,000

2013 — Enrollment hits 3,109

SOURCE: Central Maine Community College

Central Maine Community College: Then and now

Number of programs/majors offered

Fall 1964: 4

Fall 2014: 24

Number of staff

Fall 1964: 11

Fall 2014: 160 (doesn’t include part-time instructors)

Student body

Fall 1964: 100% men

Fall 2014: 52% women/48% men (approximate)

Tuition

Fall 1964: $247 (comprehensive fee for the year)

Fall 2014: $2,700 (for a full-time student, based on $90/credit hour)

Number of students

Fall 1964: 104

Fall 2014: 3,000

College’s annual budget

1964-65: $139,722 

2013-2014: $25,902,403

SOURCE: Central Maine Community College

“When I came here 18 years ago, if there was one person of color, you knew what his name was and he was on the basketball team,” said Knapp, who was originally skeptical of the flag concept — he didn’t think there would be enough to hang. “It has become incredibly diverse.”

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