Economy helping to fill NSCC class rolls

LYNN – As a tough economy continues to cause havoc to family’s savings accounts and investments, and students find it more difficult to find work out of school, many in the area are choosing to attend community college, rather than spring for higher priced, private institutions.As classes begin this week, North Shore Community College is readying for a 20.5 percent increase in overall enrollment, including a 20 percent increase in full time students, 65 percent of whom are enrolling in college for the first time.This means that more high school graduates are jumping right to NSCC, where in the past most new students were older students returning to school or professionals looking to take more classes.”We have seen a huge spike in enrollment this year, and the students we are seeing tend to be younger; we have a lot more high school graduates,” said NSCC President Wayne Burton. “They are really loading up on the sciences, a lot of them are enrolled in math and sciences, so it is representing a change.”Many of the new students entering both the Lynn and Danvers campuses are from Lynn, representing an overall increase in new students from the city.Burton likens the increase to the nationwide economic struggles, and says paying for an expensive four-year college is just not possible for many students in these times.”I think it is really an impact of the poor economy,” he said. “Students are starting to seek higher education at community colleges and they are avoiding the more expensive private institutions.”The increase in enrollment will be challenging for the school as it tries to accommodate all of the new faces, but the opening of a new allied health building in Danvers and plans to expand the campus in Lynn have Burton optimistic that the school can handle a steady increase.Burton said the school is in the midst of a study to try to renovate and expand the McGee Building at its Broad Street campus, and hopes to use a $20 million bond awarded to the school last year to fund the project.”With imaginative planning and work we can accommodate our demand, and we are happy to have them here,” he said. “We are in the middle of what I am calling the Lynn Initiative. We are doing a study of the land near the Lynn campus so we can refurbish and expand the McGee Building.”Burton said the allied health center in Danvers is the area’s first net zero facility, meaning it creates more energy than it uses.