FAIRFIELD, Maine — While talking with staff and students at Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC) about the school, the term "commuter campus" is something that comes up frequently.
"It takes me about 45 to 50 minutes to get here," physical therapy student Christopher Pitman-Smith said while practicing different stretching techniques on his classmate.
Pitman-Smith and other students at KVCC explained how their commutes can take up a lot of time and be physically draining.
"You get up, you have a little bit of energy —what energy you have you spend driving. It's almost like you have to restart your morning after the commute," Pitman-Smith said.
Starting next fall though, staff at KVCC say the college plans to house 50 students inside 25 two-bedroom units at the nearby Best Western Plus in Waterville. The package, which will cost $5,900 per semester, includes a meal plan and shuttle service to and from the campus.
"Housing or lodging in any life situation is stressful, so if we can kind of take away some of that stress and have a partnership already so you can just be here and focus on school," KVCC's Dean of Students CJ McKenna explained.
McKenna added that the lodging could give students more time at school and allow them to focus on other responsibilities outside of the classroom.
"Whether that's family, a part time job, some are full time, so trying to help them with that partnership between us and what they're trying to accomplish in their personal lives," McKenna said.
David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System, says KVCC's lodging option comes at a time of increasing demand for community college education across the state.
"We were at about 15,000 students and now we're at over 21,000 students," Daigler said
This fall, enrollment has increased by 10 percent. According to Daigler, the colleges are working to meet the needs of their growing student body that he says is in part from the college system's decision to make attendance free for all high school graduates in Maine.
"We want to make sure we're meeting this demand and giving every student the opportunity to succeed at one of our colleges," Daigler explained.
And with the addition of lodging next fall, Pitman-Smith says current and incoming students could both benefit.
"That would give me more time to study, more time to rest," Pitman-Smith said
The Maine Community College System says it is also collaborating with the University of Maine System to make transferring easier by providing community college graduates guaranteed admission to any of the universities with UMaine's system.