Kathy Lilley sees her academic counseling office at the Community College of Baltimore County as almost like the front desk in a hospital emergency room.
A middle-age truck driver looking to become an apprentice electrician might be followed by a 20-year-old unsure how to translate academic skills into a paying career. No matter what the problem, Lilley's staff tries to find a solution within the college's catalog of courses and job-training programs. With the recession wiping out thousands of careers, their advice has never been more in demand.
"They really come in and tell us their life stories," said Lilley, whose office at the Catonsville campus saw 3,966 students in July. "And as a counselor, you're basically triaging their needs."
Lilley's staff is among those facing a surge of students entering Baltimore-area community colleges.
At the Community College of Baltimore County, fall enrollment is expected to be 20 percent higher than last year. At community colleges in Howard, Anne Arundel, Harford and Carroll counties, enrollment is projected to rise 10 percent to 12 percent over last fall, and health care training programs are relegating hundreds of applicants to waiting lists. Baltimore City Community College officials did not return phone calls seeking enrollment data.
Community colleges appeal to several populations of students in difficult financial times. At less than one-third the cost of the state's public universities and less than 10 percent of the cost of many private colleges, they're a bargain for families of recent high school graduates. But they also offer a plethora of job-training programs for older people looking to make career changes. Last month, President Barack Obama announced a $12 billion funding initiative for community colleges, noting their role in helping workers adapt to a changing economy.
"Our time has come," said Sandra Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County. "From the president on down, we're seeing a recognition of the many roles we play in educating the nation. It feels good."
Students said community college now seems a sensible option for excellent high school performers, something that might not have been true before.
"A lot of my friends were, like me, pretty good students in high school, and they're going to community college because it's a whole lot cheaper," said Jordan Stackhouse, a 2009 graduate of Polytechnic Institute who will attend CCBC-Essex. "They feel like they can still get a pretty good education."
