Employers in Maine’s construction industry, grappling with labor shortages for more than a decade, are getting a batch of job-ready trainees this month.
A fast-track construction training program that launched this year recently graduated 25 participants across three community colleges.
Northern Maine Community College graduates gained experience in construction fundamentals, job site safety and skilled trade career pathways. PHOTO / COURTESY AGC MAINE
Maine Construction Academy’s Immersion Program is a workforce development initiative of Associated General Contractors of Maine in partnership with the Maine Community College System and the Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce.
The four-week program debuted this year as the latest of several workforce initiatives offered through partnerships between AGC Maine, Maine’s community colleges and industry employers, all designed to introduce individuals to careers in construction while helping employers connect with job-ready talent.
Direct employer connection
Graduates trained at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle, Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor and Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. Training five days a week, they gained experience in construction fundamentals, job site safety and skilled trade career pathways. Graduates earned nationally recognized certifications.
Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor was one of three community colleges to graduate construction academy participants this month. PHOTO / COURTESY AGC MAINE
On graduation day, participants met with employers in structured interviews, providing opportunities to pursue employment, apprenticeships and continued training immediately upon graduation.
Graduates received a Milwaukee Tool kit, a certificate of completion, nationally accredited certifications and four college credits that can be applied toward future educational opportunities for career advancement in construction and skilled trades.
The program, managed by AGC Maine and funded by MCCS’s Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce, is a result of a statewide construction industry workforce partnership launched in March by the Alfond Center that included over 50 stakeholders from the construction industry, trade associations, union, education and workforce development systems.
Graduates of the immersion program at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. PHOTO / COURTESY AGC MAINE
AGC Maine represents commercial construction firms across the state. The Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce coordinates short-term workforce training programs for Maine’s community colleges, working with business leaders and workforce specialists statewide. The Maine Community College System has seven community colleges with the lowest tuition and fees in New England, serving more than 33,000 people per year.
Earlier this month, the Maine Community College System board announced that Susan Rogers would be the next president of Central Maine Community College in Auburn.
Rogers, a Long Island, New York, native is a chief of staff and vice president of institutional effectiveness for Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She has her doctorate in educational psychology and methodology.
She will begin at Central Maine Community College on Aug. 10, succeeding Betsy Libby, who is vice president and chief academic officer for the Maine Community College System.
Can you tell me about you and your background?
I’m currently chief of staff and vice president of institutional effectiveness for Dutchess Community College, which is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) System. I’ve been in this role at Dutchess for four years, then before that, as an associate dean of academic affairs. I was a psychology professor for eight years. I loved it. I loved being a professor and working with my students so much. They inspired me every day.
What inspired you to apply for the job?
Central Maine Community College is doing amazing work, No. 1. They’ve connected academic programs to the needs of the community for years, very successfully. When I visited the campus, the sense of pride that the faculty have in the work they do to serve students was palpable. I met with students and they had so much pride in their academic and athletic programs and they felt so supported in getting exactly the kind of education they needed. When I did my research, that’s exactly what I expected to find, but when you visit in real life, you can feel it.
What can you bring from Dutchess to Central Maine?
I’ve been the person leading efforts toward more hands-on programming. In 2023, I spearheaded the opening of a mechatronic lab that trains students in electrical technology that offers both credit and training opportunities. A lot of the experiences I had there were directly relevant to the things that are very strong in Central Maine and I think that’s part of why it was a very good fit and why I was drawn to the campus and why it was drawn to me.
What made Central Maine Community College stand out to you?
I think all of the programs at Central Maine are very strong. I’m going to call out the career and technical programs. Some of those are workforce programs and not college credit earning, but some are tied directly to jobs and others to associate’s degrees that move into jobs. I toured those labs and spaces when I was on campus and the teams have done an amazing job doing hands-on learning and working with real equipment and teaching them exactly what they need to know to enter the workforce. The jobs they are getting have thriving wages and the program really gives foundational skills. I was very impressed.
What makes you such a strong advocate for technical education?
Even when I was a psychology professor, my main motivation was helping students build better lives for themselves. Sometimes, some people need a little push, while others need a lot. It doesn’t matter — faculty and staff are all about helping students. When I moved into administration and I could be more involved in developing the impact that can help with employment, I was all in. I understood how much of an impact it has to enter the workforce as a professional, or someone changing careers for real skills and dollars.
It doesn’t sound like it’s related to psychology, but it’s about support and well-being. I understand the relationship between the kind of life you want and choices you want and having the education and wage earning ability to do that. For me, that’s a big part of the motivation. Another part is that people have different talents and skill sets. The idea that everyone should be academically minded and pursue a particular kind of college education, that doesn’t fit who we are.
Do you have any plans when you arrive at the college in August?
Because Central Maine is so strong, I’m not coming in to make sweeping changes. They don’t need me to change things. What I need to learn more about and understand is the amazing enrollment boom in the Maine Community College System and the free college program. I want to make sure we are building the systems we need to be successful. I know it’s already underway, but I want to bring my expertise and background to it.
What about yourself living in Maine?
I’ve always said I wanted to live in Maine. I’ve lived in New York State my whole life, but I’ve visited Maine several times and have always loved it. My husband and I are big outdoorsy people. We love to hike, kayak, bicycle, go to up to Acadia National Park. I am very excited about exploring the outside area, the hikes in particular. Being in Auburn, I can get to the coast, to the mountains and there are rivers and lakes close by. I know I will be putting a lot into my job and balancing it with my adventures.
AUGUSTA, ME — The Maine Community College System (MCCS) Board of Trustees honored former Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court Dan Wathen on Wednesday with trustee emeritus standing for his many contributions and dedication to the students of Maine’s community colleges.
“We are very grateful to Dan for his outstanding work supporting Maine’s community colleges during a period of tremendous growth,” MCCS President David Daigler said. “His guidance strengthened Maine’s community colleges and made the state a better place through his dedication to expanding opportunities to Maine’s community college students.”
Wathen, of Easton, was appointed to the MCCS Board of Trustees in 2006 and served for eight years, two of them as chairman. During his tenure, Wathen helped establish the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, serving on the foundation’s board since its founding and served as secretary for 16 years. The Foundation, as the fundraising arm of the colleges, has since raised nearly $150 million in support of student scholarships, program expansion, and new facilities and equipment.
In his remarks after receiving the citation on Wednesday, Wathen said that the Latin root for education – “educere,” which means “to lead out” – meant education is there “to lead you out of poverty, to lead you out of ignorance …. Education is an important thing.”
“I’m firmly convinced that education is the way to lead you out,” Wathen said, noting that he was the only person in his 16-person graduating class in Easton to go on to a traditional college. “If you stick with education, your past is not your future.”
“I’m very proud to have been involved” with the colleges and foundation, particularly for their focus on cultivating and supporting workforce development, he said.
Wathen is the ninth person to be named trustee emeritus in the 35 years since the title was created.
“One of the most satisfying aspects of being Governor and chairing the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges has been working with incredibly talented people who are driven to find effective solutions to tough challenges, who care about making life better for others. There are a number of those people here today, and Maine is an infinitely better place because of them,” said former Governor and Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges Chairman John McKernan. “But no one in Maine has contributed more, over a longer period of time, than Dan.”
Wathen was first appointed to the Maine Superior Court by Governor James B. Longley in 1977, served four years before being appointed to Maine’s highest court by Governor Joseph E. Brennan in 1981. In 1992, he was elevated to Chief Justice by Governor John R. McKernan and he retired in 2001. Since then, Wathen has served in a variety of public service roles in Maine, recently serving as chair of the independent commission to investigate the facts of the Lewiston shooting.
Photo: Former Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court Dan Wathen was honored with trustee emeritus standing on Wednesday by the Maine Community College System. (l to r: Former Governor and Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges Chairman John McKernan; Wathen; MCCS President David Daigler, and Foundation President John Fitzsimmons.)
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The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges is dedicated to ensuring that the state’s seven community colleges have the resources they need to provide a high quality and affordable education for Maine people. More information about the foundation is available at: www.maineccfoundation.org.
Daigler has led the system since 2019, championing college affordability and expanded workforce training
MCCS President David Daigler
BANGOR, ME —Maine Community College System (MCCS) President David Daigler plans to step down as system president by the end of the 2026-27 academic year, he told employees Thursday.
“It’s the right time for the system, the state, and me personally,” said Daigler, who has been president since 2019 and joined the system in 2003. Daigler notified the MCCS Board of Trustees on Wednesday at their regular meeting at Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC).
Notifying the board now gives them time for a thorough search and smooth transition, Daigler said in his closing remarks at Dirigo, an annual two-day retreat for MCCS employees held at EMCC.
“We have new state leadership coming in, we have successfully made the Maine Free College scholarship permanent, our workforce programming is incredibly robust, and our leadership team is strong,” he said. “Together we have ensured that Maine’s community colleges are delivering on their promise to be affordable, accessible, and the single best way for Mainers to get the skills they need for good jobs in today’s economy.”
As president, Daigler guided the seven-college system through the pandemic without layoffs or permanent program cuts, oversaw multiple years of record high enrollments, signed historic new transfer agreements with public and private colleges and universities in Maine, and successfully collaborated with Governor Janet Mills to ensure her Maine Free College scholarship proposal became permanent, making Maine’s community colleges tuition-free for recent high school graduates for the foreseeable future. At the same time, tuition has not increased since fall 2020, MCCS employee wages have increased by 32%, and the system has consistently delivered balanced budgets.
One of Daigler’s signature accomplishments was growing a decades-old, modestly state-funded short-term workforce training program (Maine Quality Centers) into a historic $150 million grant-fueled initiative, dubbed the Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce, that vastly expanded the colleges’ short-term workforce training programs. Today, the Alfond Center is on track to train more than 100,000 Mainers by 2030. Through this effort, Maine remains on the leading edge of a now-ubiquitous nationwide focus on two- and four-year colleges adding or increasing short-term workforce training programs to their offerings to meet the needs of an ever-changing workplace.
“David has been a tremendous leader in a consequential and difficult period, deftly handling the pressures of the pandemic, political turmoil, and dramatic swings in economic factors in Maine resulting from the pandemic,” said Peter DelGreco, chairman of the MCCS Board of Trustees. “The board could rely on his outstanding stewardship and his ability to advance a bold vision that expanded and grew the system to better serve students and the state, delivered in an authentic, personable way that invited collaboration and enthusiasm. He will be sorely missed.”
The search for a new president will begin immediately.
“It has been my greatest privilege to work alongside the outstanding people at Maine’s community colleges to make these colleges, our communities, and the entire state a more prosperous, kind, and supportive place for all,” Daigler said. “The power of education to transform the lives of those striving to improve and become more informed and engaged citizens cannot be underestimated.”
Maine’s community colleges enroll more than 20,000 degree-seeking students a year and ultimately serve more than 33,000 students annually through two-year associate degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term workforce training, early college programs, advanced certificates, and other learning opportunities.
BANGOR, ME — The Board of Trustees of the Maine Community College System (MCCS) has confirmed the recommendation of MCCS President David Daigler and appointed Dr. Susan Rogers, a vice president at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as the next president of Central Maine Community College in Auburn. She will begin August 10.
“I am honored to join Central Maine Community College and the Maine Community College System at such an exciting time. Community colleges create opportunity by design, and CMCC already has strong programs, strong partnerships, and a deep commitment to students. I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students, employers, and community partners to build on that foundation and expand opportunity for the people and communities we serve,” Rogers said.
Rogers has been chief of staff and vice president for institutional effectiveness at Dutchess Community College since 2022, and previously served as interim vice president of instruction and learning. Dutchess Community College is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
Before joining Dutchess Community College, she was a faculty member and division chair in the division of social sciences, sustainability, & entrepreneurship at SUNY Sullivan, earning the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service in 2014. In her time at Sullivan she helped design and implement an innovative first-year-experience program focused on student belonging, engagement, and success, oversaw the expanded community presence of the culinary program, and led institutional strategic planning processes for campus and community members.
At Dutchess, Rogers led strategic initiatives focused on student success, workforce development, and institutional effectiveness. She oversaw the development and opening of the college’s Mechatronics Lab, launched its professional microcredential program, and helped create a new Office of Workforce Development and Continuing Education to strengthen pathways into credit programs. She also led the cross-campus effort that resulted in successful institution-wide reaccreditation while strengthening the college’s culture of assessment, planning, and continuous improvement.
“It’s invaluable to have a college president with first-hand experience from the classroom to the leadership team,” Daigler said. “Her focus on student success, academic excellence, employer-focused workforce training programs, her coaching skills and collaborative approach, and her experience leading major strategic initiatives will all be tremendous assets to the CMCC community.”
“The Board of Trustees warmly welcomes Dr. Rogers. Her experience, success, and enthusiasm for many of our key priorities at Maine’s community colleges make her an outstanding choice to lead Central Maine Community College,” said MCCS Board Chairman Peter DelGreco. “The Board of Trustees is very excited to see what new heights a great campus like CMCC will reach under Dr. Rogers’ leadership and vision.”
Rogers has a doctorate and master’s in educational psychology and methodology from the University of Albany, N.Y., and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from SUNY New Paltz. She also holds a graduate certificate in education research and multiple professional development certifications. She was part of the first New York State Student Success Coaching Academy cohort in 2019, which was based on a national training program by Jobs for the Future and Achieving the Dream.
Rogers succeeds MCCS Vice President and Chief Academic Affairs and Enrollment Management Officer Betsy Libby, who led CMCC as president for more than five years and first joined the college in 2006.
Central Maine Community College serves more than 5,500 students and is located in Auburn, with an off-campus center in Damariscotta. The college offers more than 50 degrees, certificates, and advanced certificates; a range of short-term workforce training programs; on- and off-campus housing options, and a robust athletic program.
The Maine Community College System Board of Trustees will hold a regularly scheduled meeting at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor and via Zoom on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
For Zoom information or any other questions, please contact Director of Communications and Public Affairs Noel Gallagher at (207) 629-4028 or at ngallagher@mainecc.edu.
The agenda for the day’s meeting is posted on the MCCS website and is subject to change prior to the meeting date.
At Hudson County Community College in New Jersey, contentious national topics hit close to home.
Take raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It’s hard to see, especially when these people you’re seeing get detained, innocent people as well,” says Emily Martinez, 18, an HCCC student living in Bayonne, New Jersey, majoring in criminal justice, and planning eventually to get a master’s degree and become a homicide detective. “I pray every day,” says Martinez, “that my family is able to return home safely” — all the more so after an HCCC student and her mother were swept up in March by ICE. While the mother was released, the college says, the student is being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
On social media or at a protest, Martinez, a first-generation Mexican-American college student, will speak her mind on such incidents. “You’ve got to be the voice for the families that can’t speak out,” she says.
On campus, however, she’s hesitant to dive into these matters with her peers. “If you see me in person, I probably won’t say anything.” Face to face, there is too much awkward tension around difficult subjects — and the vibe, says Martinez, is “‘let’s not do this right now.’”
In the last few years, the skills and willingness to have conversations about tough topics have waned, according to students, faculty members, and surveys. Pandemic isolation probably atrophied some of those verbal-engagement muscles, college leaders say, but political violence and ugly, polarized public rhetoric could be bigger factors. Expressing yourself in person, Martinez and other students say, risks hateful and even dangerous reactions.
But ultimately, what’s the alternative? Most people don’t want to go tromping through life starting arguments, but talking through tense, complicated issues is a skill fundamental not just to democracy but to work and to family and community life. Colleges are trying to teach their students civil-dialogue skills so they can approach thorny issues respectfully and tell their stories and express their beliefs without fear.
So far such formal efforts have mostly been at four-year colleges, especially private liberal-arts colleges, even though 39 percent of all undergraduates and 49 percent of Hispanic undergraduates attend community colleges. HCCC and a handful of other community colleges or community-college systems are trying to change that as members of a consortium called College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, which the group abbreviates as CPCP or, in conversation, “CP Squared.”
The coalition of presidents is the brainchild of Rajiv Vinnakota, president of Citizens & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) in Princeton, New Jersey. CPCP started in August 2023 with 14 member institutions and is now at 135 and growing, Vinnakota says.
Every college has pockets of intense civil dialogue occurring in certain classrooms or centers. The key, says Vinnakota, is to make civil dialogue the norm for students. They should practice it regularly from orientation on, throughout curricular and co-curricular life. “We want to make this part of our DNA,” he says. It’s early days, but CPCP has started to measure the civil-dialogue program’s effectiveness through a few select questions in student surveys about campus climate.
Fertile Ground
Community colleges are a promising laboratory for such a project, especially diverse colleges like HCCC, a multi-campus, urban institution with one campus in sight of the Statue of Liberty and another near the site of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
Eighty-seven percent of its students are non-white. On its Journal Square campus in Jersey City, its North Hudson campus in Union City, or its center in Secaucus, you’ll hear students speaking English, Spanish, Arabic, and a slew of other languages, says the college’s president, Christopher M. Reber. A third of HCCC’s 24,000 combined credit and non-credit students were born in other countries, and 1,500 are learning English as a second language.
Community-college students usually don’t live on campus and have fewer opportunities outside the in-person or virtual classroom to absorb an institution’s culture. On the other hand, they often have substantial life and work experience and have had to bridge cultural chasms. Talking through differences and tough situations? Those are the stories of their lives. But they might not know they’ve learned those skills, or that the skills are in demand, and they might not feel comfortable sharing their stories. That’s what HCCC wants to change.
“People’s stories matter. They’re relevant to the content we’re talking about,” says Kade Thurman, the college’s coordinator of sociology and anthropology and an instructor of sociology. Civil discourse isn’t just about being able to speak candidly about Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, ICE raids, and other hot-button issues. It’s about “flattening the hierarchy and really encouraging the students to share.”
“It’s important,” says Christopher Conzen, executive director of HCCC’s Secaucus Center and its dual-enrollment program, “to be able to have that conversation in the classroom rather than tamping it down or avoiding it.”
Community colleges, by their very nature, are good laboratories for civil dialogue, he says. “As an open-access institution, we are a mirror of our community.” And for the nation’s almost 2 million high-school dual-enrollment students at community colleges — more than a fifth of community colleges’ enrollment — civil-dialogue efforts offer early exposure to conversations across differences, says Conzen. Dual-enrollment students are constructively thrust into discussions with older classmates from across the county and, in many cases, international backgrounds. There is a safety in escaping the peer judgment of those younger students’ K-12 classmates. “They feel a little freer to engage in these conversations,” Conzen says, “because it won’t affect their peer standing. … They get to test out some of the beliefs that they have.”
Such conversations are not limited to social-science and humanities classes, says Citizens & Scholars’ Vinnakota. He recalls the director of a nurse-training program who approached him after a CPCP event. Nurses, she said, constantly make tough decisions from complex variables and communicate them to colleagues, patients, and families in intense situations. “Call that collaborative problem solving and civil discourse,” Vinnakota suggests, and call out to faculty and students that employers actively seek those abilities.
How to Open Minds
How, exactly, might an instructor weave civil-dialogue skills into everyday discussions and activities? Instructors from around the country attend CPCP faculty institutes, then follow up with regular online workshops. Back on campus, they share techniques with colleagues in professional-development activities and test them out in their own classes.
“Students here really crave that kind of civil discourse, that kind of expressivist mode,” says DeBlois.
Michael A. DeBlois is a composition and public-speaking instructor at York County Community College, in Maine — part of the seven-college, nine-campus Maine Community College System, which is part of CPCP. DeBlois went to a 2024 CPCP training program in New Jersey for about 50 community-college faculty members and administrators from around the country. Among other activities, they practiced looking for signals that constructive dialogue in a group might be falling apart. The room goes eerily silent, for instance, or students start interrupting each other. That’s when the instructor can switch discussion modes to bring the conversation back into focus and make students feel more comfortable.
DeBlois had always thought of such situations as student interactions he didn’t have much influence over, but he learned that, at least sometimes, an instructor can help steer the conversational ship. For instance, argument and persuasion are fundamental to DeBlois’s syllabi, but instead of having students argue their viewpoints, he might have them map out many possible views on, say, whether AI is, over all, more harmful or helpful. “We end by collaborating, synthesizing, or building upon the different perspectives to create a new idea or a more comprehensive understanding of the issue,” he explains.
Or students might physically line up to represent a spectrum of viewpoints. That shifts their thinking from simple pro-con dichotomies. Part of seeing the viewpoint diversity around them, says DeBlois, is that students don’t worry as much about not being in other people’s ostensible camp. There are no us-versus-them camps, but rather a range of perspectives — and often quickly shifting perspectives at that.
In that kind of discussion, sensitive headline issues come up naturally, says DeBlois, but the instructor needn’t raise them directly at the outset. That risks putting some students on the defensive. Strategies to more gently generate discussion might include reading poetry, says DeBlois, or essays from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, about how perception is affected by gender, ideology, economics, and other factors.Michael A. DeBlois, a composition and public-speaking instructor at York County Community College, in Maine, went to a 2024 training run by College Presidents for Civic Preparedness. Photo courtesy of York County Community College.
“Students here really crave that kind of civil discourse, that kind of expressivist mode,” says DeBlois.
One class discussion on those Berger readings led students to talk about reporting on the war in Gaza. A student said the conversation was bringing out a lot of anxiety for her, but during the next class, DeBlois said, she thanked her classmates for talking the matter through, which she said helped her cope with that anxiety. Unlike a classic debate format, which DeBlois also teaches and which he says has its place, the goal here is not to win but to seek truths together.
However delicately such discussions are generated, some students will feel awkward staking their claim on a matter. They might remain quiet, at least for a while, says DeBlois, and that’s OK. “Give them space and grace,” he advises.
Overall, says DeBlois, “the students here really crave that kind of civil discourse, that kind of expressivist mode.”
Jason Early, 17, is majoring in architectural and engineering design at York County and plans to transfer to the University of Southern Maine and earn a degree in mechanical engineering. “I try to stay out of politics with friends,” he says. But during discussions in DeBlois’s class and others at York County, he and other students have talked about contentious topics with “no heckling at all,” he says. “No one was being like, What are you doing? Stop talking.” In a history course, “you’re obviously going to go through a lot of touchy topics,” he says, “but there was never a time when people got angry.”
In a discussion of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, students stuck to specifics like how much President Harry Truman knew about what harms the bombs would inflict. A discussion about AI “shifted my viewpoint and made it maybe a bit wider,” Early says, allowing that there could be constructive uses for AI in business even if he still thinks it has no place in education. An online discussion in macroeconomics focused on readings contrasting classical and Keynesian economic models. Early wrote a response to a classmate saying, “I like what you did here,” but adding that he disagreed and was more of a Keynesian himself.
Confronted with opposing viewpoints, Early tries to say, “What makes them feel this way? What makes them tick?” Regarding news he finds outrageous, “I think it can be frustrating sometimes. … ‘Why would anyone be agreeing with this?’” But then he tries to understand what formed those views. He thinks to himself, “‘They had good intentions somewhere, I’m sure,’ and try to find those.”
‘A Better Path’
Those regular opportunities to engage in civil dialogue, says David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System, “are essential skills for the workplace and they’re essential skills for democracy.”
“It’s not about conquering or winning the day,” he says. “It’s about understanding and being understood.”
Looking at civil communication in his politically polarized state in our politically polarized nation, Daigler says, “In the 1860s we couldn’t do that, and it didn’t end well for us, so let’s find a better path this time.”
Rifaya Dubash Khajamohideen, 20, is wrapping up her associate degree in biology at Hudson County Community College and will transfer to the New Jersey Institute of Technology to study forensic science. In her three years at HCCC, she says, she’s seen a chill come over students’ conversations about current events. “I would definitely say there’s been a bit of cautiousness,” she says — a feeling of “I don’t feel safe having this conversation.” Middle-East warfare, politics, Trump — “we’re scared, Would this person do something to me if I bring that up?”
Khajamohideen is president of the student government association and works two jobs — one on campus in enrollment services and one as a customer-service agent at Newark airport. She says that conversational chill is unfortunate. Knowing when and how to engage across differences, she has learned, is a crucial skill for students and in the workplace. She appreciates the college’s push for civil dialogue across varying viewpoints because “they’re teaching you and you’re teaching them.”
Fearfully swerving to avoid forbidden topics is un-American, she says.
“We live in the U.S.A.,” says Khajamohideen. Choose your moments, sure, but “we should be able to speak our minds without thinking about who’s going to harm us in what way.”
AUGUSTA, ME — Seven Maine community college students were honored for their academic success and campus and community involvement on Wednesday at a ceremony at Maple Hill Farm in Hallowell. The event was hosted by the Maine Community College System (MCCS) Board of Trustees.
The 2026 MCCS Students of the Year are:
Kelson Custodio, Westbrook, Central Maine Community College
Eleanora Haines, Orrington, Eastern Maine Community College
Jasmine Sanders, Augusta, Kennebec Valley Community College
Joshua Scheff, Presque Isle, Northern Maine Community College
Kamryn “Kamy” Dube, Winthrop, Southern Maine Community College
Kendall Wood-Coffin, Machiasport, Washington County Community College
Casey Rand, Wells, York County Community College
The students being honored were selected by faculty and staff at their colleges.
In addition to being recognized as Students of the Year, each received a John and Jana Lapoint Leadership Award in the amount of $1,000.
Mr. Lapoint was president of UF Strainrite in Lewiston and a trustee of the Maine Community College System. After his death in 1995, his widow, Jana Lapoint, served on the Board from 1995 to 2006 and helped establish the fund for the annual awards.
Maine community college leaders and students breathed a sigh of relief after lawmakers narrowly passed a supplemental budget permanently funding the state’s free community college program, albeit with some cost-saving tweaks. Gov. Janet Mills, who proposed and has been a driving force behind the program, signed the legislation Friday.
“This biennial budget should send a clear message to every young person in Maine: if you are willing to work hard and build your future here, Maine is ready to invest in your success,” Mills said in a news release.
The free college program began in 2022 to support high school classes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with hopes of making it permanent down the line. It covered tuition and fees at Maine community colleges for those who graduated from 2020 through 2023 and was later extended to the Classes of 2024 and 2025. But last summer, the Maine Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee threw the program into limbo when lawmakers raised concerns about the program’s long-term sustainability and declined to make it permanent.
The move left Maine on the brink of becoming the first state to establish and then take away free college. But after months of dialogue with the governor, community college leaders and students, and an outpouring of public support for the program, the Legislature ultimately voted in favor of sustaining a less expensive version of the program.
David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System, said the program’s future felt uncertain to him “right down to the wire. I was taking nothing for granted.” But that anxiety has now been replaced with a “sense of jubilation” on campuses and among high school students who now know for certain they can take advantage of the program.
When Maine’s program hung in the balance, Daigler said he heard from a high school counselor that students “used up a full box of Kleenex because they realized they weren’t going to have enough money to go to college” if the program didn’t continue.
“The free college program gives those very students the opportunity to continue their education,” he said.
To get there, Daigler and other program advocates had to make some concessions. Going forward, the program will cover tuition but not student fees, which amount to roughly $600 per semester. Because it’s a last-dollar program, students who receive the Pell Grant can apply it to their fees and still pay nothing, but Daigler said he does worry for students “just above the Pell line.” The program will also give students three years instead of four to complete their studies. And students must reside in Maine for at least a year before they’re eligible for tuition coverage. The program was originally designed to include out-of-state students in hopes of coaxing young talent to the aging state, where deaths now outpace births and retirements are leaving gaps in the workforce, Daigler said.
Still, he believes these modifications are a small price to pay for the state continuing to cover students’ tuition.
“That’s essentially how legislation is made,” Daigler said. “We’ve got to all sit at the table, roll up our shirtsleeves and try and make sure that we find the formula that meets everybody’s objectives.”
STUDENTS REACT
Student Jason Early, who’s graduating from York County Community College this spring and advocated for the program to state lawmakers, said he was similarly “disappointed” by students having to pay fees from now on. He hopes the Legislature might revisit that provision down the line.
But “if they have to make a compromise somewhere for [the program] to continue, well, it’s better than it ending completely,” said Early, who’s heading to the University of Southern Maine in the fall. “People who weren’t expecting that they’re going to be able to go to college are now able to. I feel like that’s such a great thing, just to have a more educated populace in Maine. I really think it’s great for everybody.”
Victoria Wile, a student at Central Maine Community College who also spoke out on behalf of the bill, said the program partly drove her decision to earn her building construction technology associate degree at the college—the same institution her grandmother, grandfather and mother have attended. She’s now working on the college’s maintenance team while she earns her second degree in facility maintenance and management.
The program “allowed me to focus on the schoolwork rather than trying to pay the bills” and put the money she saved toward other costs, including a study abroad experience and the tools she needed for her courses, she said. “I really didn’t want to go into college just to rack up debt.” Attending CMCC “became an easy decision, and it ended up being a very worthwhile decision.”
Wile said she’s glad to see Maine’s free college program continue so that her brothers and other Maine students can “get the same opportunity and financial freedom” she did.
“I hope other Mainers, other students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend college, really take advantage of the opportunity they have,” she said, “because I definitely wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t have the opportunity of free college.”
BROADER IMPLICATIONS
Despite the trade-offs made to keep the program alive, Daigler sees the moment as a good omen for the free community college movement as a whole. Preserving the program during a time of intense political polarization and a lean budget year indicates how popular free college is as a policy, he said.
As fewer federal dollars flow to states, “everybody has to tighten their belt” and take cost-saving measures, Daigler said, but Maine lawmakers made “a very strong legislative commitment, driven by a very strong popular opinion that this program is necessary.” A fall 2025 poll found that 80 percent of Maine voters supported continuing the program. And enrollment has surged at the community colleges since the program began. More than 23,000 students eligible for the program have enrolled.
Morley Winograd, chairman of the board for the Campaign for Free College Tuition, agreed that Maine’s triumph is a win for the movement. He also believes the modifications made to the program were “reasonable” and don’t taint the victory.
More than 30 states now offer some form of tuition-free community college, and none of them have rescinded these programs, despite executive transitions in some of these states, “which is great evidence that they are an essential and important part of the overall U.S. higher education system and also a great benefit in this time of high, high concern over affordability,” he said.
In fact, Winograd expected states to propose cutting back on free community college programs amid heightened uncertainty around federal funding. But so far, that hasn’t happened.
“We have not seen such activity of any consequence,” he said, “which may be simply a lull before the storm, because a lot of state budgets are still operating on assumptions from last year … and a lot of them have midyear deadlines … but at this point, no, this has not been a big issue anywhere that we’re aware of.”
He also pointed out that Gov. Mills is running for Senate and has touted free community college as one of her landmark accomplishments.
“I think it further reflects the popularity of the program,” he said. “It’s a bipartisan idea.”
BANGOR, ME — With a scratch of the pen and surrounded by e-vehicles and cars in an automotive bay at Eastern Maine Community College, Governor Janet Mills made the Maine Free College Scholarship permanent for high school graduates in the Class of 2026 and beyond.
“This is a once-in-a generation moment for Maine’s higher education landscape,” Maine Community College President David Daigler said. “This gives future high school graduates the means and opportunity to pursue a path they may have felt was financially out of reach. And now that it’s a permanent program, a generation of young people can move with confidence and intention toward a brighter future for themselves and Maine.”
The Maine Free College Scholarship covers 100% of tuition for recent high school graduates who are Maine residents and are pursuing a degree or certificate program at a Maine community college. It’s a last-dollar program, after federal and state grant aid is applied. The scholarship, which applies to the Class of 2026 and beyond, is a slightly scaled-back version of a Maine Free College Scholarship program proposed by Mills and launched in fall 2022.
The Maine Free College Scholarship language was included in the supplemental budget signed Friday by Mills. It’s rare to have a bill signing not at the Capitol; Mills office believes this is the first one signed off-site.
“This biennial budget should send a clear message to every young person in Maine: if you are willing to work hard and build your future here, Maine is ready to invest in your success,” Mills said.
To qualify for the Free College Scholarship, students must have a high school diploma or equivalent, enroll no more than two years after graduating , pursue an associate degree program or one-year credential, be a Maine resident and live in Maine while enrolled, and accept federal and state grants before the Maine Free College scholarship is applied.
The Free College Scholarship is offered in addition to multiple other tuition waiver or free college opportunities at Maine’s community colleges, such as free early college classes for Maine high school students and a wide assortment of free short-term workforce training programs that take just weeks or months to complete.
Full-time tuition at Maine’s community colleges is $2,880/year.
