Senator Gerzofsky and SMCC christens campus at Brunswick

Senator Gerzofsky with President Ortiz (photo by David Carkhuff)

Three days before his retirement, Southern Maine Community College president James Ortiz stood back and marveled as he sized up the college’s new midcoast campus at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.

“We’ve been working on this for six years, and we knew it would happen, but it’s taken us so long to get the buildings, I was wondering if I was going to be here,” the 10-year president of SMCC said Tuesday.

Ortiz is scheduled to retire from the college on Friday after overseeing its development over a decade from a technical school to a quickly growing community college.

On Tuesday, Ortiz and about 50 guests attended a ceremony marking the transfer of deeds from the Navy for two of the buildings at SMCC’s new midcoast campus.

Based in South Portland, SMCC has seen its enrollment skyrocket from 2,800 students in 2002 to 7,010 full- and part-time students last September, Ortiz said. The midcoast campus couldn’t come at a better time, he said.

“We were turning away around 4,000 students each year,” Ortiz said Tuesday in a presentation.

Called the Maine Advanced Technology & Engineering Center, the campus is starting out in two buildings. Beginning this fall, classes will temporarily operate out of a space designated to become a residence hall. Next month, construction will start on classrooms and labs in a second building, a training center for the Navy that’s being converted into classroom space. Three other buildings will be conveyed to the college later this fall, SMCC announced.

“There’s two reasons why we’re here, one is our enrollment went up so high, that we ran out of space in South Portland, we were looking for someplace else,” Ortiz explained in an interview. “The base closed and we saw that opportunity. But also the situation is that this particular campus is going to be something different, it’s going to be focused on economic development. We’re already working with several companies, so it’s already taken off.”

The classroom space at the former naval station, a site now called Brunswick Landing, will feature a variety of technical courses on topics such as pre-engineering and composites, a form of aircraft construction.

Rep. Charlie Priest, D-Brunswick, himself a Navy veteran, said the campus conversion makes sense.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the state of Maine. It was brought about because the legislature passed bonds in the past which the people approved for the renovation of these buildings. This junior college is going to teach composites and engineering, which is going to be useful for kids all over the state,” Priest said.

Sen. Stan J. Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, remembered the first tour he took on the naval base and thinking about the training opportunities there. Gerzofsky, who represents Senate District 10, which comprises Freeport, Brunswick, Harpswell and Pownal, went on to sponsor the legislation that established the midcoast campus. He also pushed for a bond package and economic development incentives that are helping to pay for the renovations.

“From the very beginning from day one, I’ve been trying to put this together,” Gerzofsky said. “Poor Charlie (Priest) had to listen to me going around saying, ‘How do you create a college when you don’t have anybody?’ ‘How do you get the Navy to give you $75 million worth of property and get the state to do a bond for you to help get the buildings ready?'”

Ortiz was part of this conversation.

“He and I have been working on this for five years. We started it on a napkin in a local restaurant, that’s really how it started,” Gerzofsky said, referring to notes they jotted at the Little Dog Coffee Shop in Brunswick.

Whether Southern New Hampshire University will join the campus remains to be seen, but SMCC will become the second college presence in Brunswick, joining Bowdoin College.

“The beauty of this is kids will be able to get educated here and then go on to the rest of the university system and get their bachelor degrees if they want to,” Priest said, alluding to a partnership between the new campus and University of Maine. “If they’re happy with the training they’ve gotten and their associate degrees, they can go back into their businesses and to their employers.”

SMCC is planning a grand opening of the midcoast campus in the fall of 2012 when all five buildings are renovated, the college reported.