Loud and overcrowded classrooms are just some of the big problems Massachusetts community college professors say they dealt with this past semester with free community college now available in the state.
“We are overcapacity. We have so many students and very few faculty and staff to support those students,” Lisa Heller Boragine, a professor at Cape Cod Community College and a member of the Massachusetts Community College Council said.
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Heller Boragine said enrollment even just at Cape Cod Community College grew by several thousand students this past semester.
“3,000 plus,” Boragine said. “We jumped 30% in two weeks and we had to actually shut down enrollment.”
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We’re told some class sizes have doubled, but the number of professors and staff were never adjusted to account for the increase of students. State data shows that community college enrollment increased by 8.7% in 2023 and another 14% in 2024. Every one of the state's community colleges saw an increase after the free tuition program implementation, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education's 2024 Early Enrollment Report for Massachusetts Public Colleges & Universities.
“I literally had a student join my communication class as an online class because she wanted to learn how to use computers. She says ‘I’m computer literate.’ I said, ‘this isn’t the way to learn.’”
The free tuition was signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey as part of the state’s budget bill and comes after free community college was offered to students 25 and older in 2023.
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According to state numbers, more than 8,400 students enrolled in the first year.
