Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
DANVERS, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — After passing a program that offers free community college tuition, Massachusetts has seen a massive spike in enrollment.
The program allows for college tuition and fees to be covered by government funds. It was rolled out in two stages. MassReconnect, which passed last summer, made this funding available for students 25 years old and up. MassEducate, which passed this past summer, made the funding available for all college eligible students, leading to a rush of new enrollments.
After one semester of the program being active, North Shore saw a 20% enrollment increase, according to college president Bill Heineman. He said that colleges statewide saw a 14% jump this fall.
“We’re thrilled,” said Heineman. “It happened fast and we're working through that but we couldn't be more excited.”
Even with that enthusiasm, Heineman was still open about how this quick growth in the student body has been an obstacle for the staff and faculty to overcome.
“Yes, it's been stressful, it's been tiring. There's more classes to teach, the classes we have are fuller and it just happened fast,” said the president. “Nothing we can't handle but definitely that many more students that quickly is a challenge.”
According to Heineman, this has especially been true for the admissions and financial aid departments, who received 8,000 applications this semester, which is double what they usually get.
Many in this wave of students are first-time college-goers, with no history of post-secondary education in their lives.
“I think they're facing a learning curve,” said Heineman. “Many of those students don't have family members or friends necessarily who have college experience.”
Heineman said community colleges all across the state, including his, have requested further funding from the state to hire more staff and provide students with further funding support for both in and out of school needs.
“We're advocating pretty strongly for both additional funding for faculty and staff salaries but also for more funding in what we call the Success program which is a wraparound program to provide students with extra support,” Heineman said. “Things like technology, a laptop or software…child care, transportation, the need to work, taking care of family, all of those things tend to be potential challenges for students as they're pursuing their education and so that's where extra support would be very helpful for us so we can assist them to finish (their education).”
WBZ NewsRadio’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.