Meghan Hughes is all about optimism. The fifth president of the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) is focusing efforts on how she can continue to build a team and inspire community to build the very best community college in the country while also being mindful of how CCRI can remain affordable to students.

CCRI is the largest community college in New England with four campuses. The institution  serves more than 40,000 Rhode Islanders annually, Warwick Rotarians learned Thursday as Hughes reflected on what the institution  has done since she was named president in 2016.

 Hughes is not a first generation college student; both her parents attended college. On one side of her family, Hughes’ grandparents attended a post-secondary institution while her mom’s side were blue collar workers. Her mother’s father began his career on the railway and later moved into working on cars and airplanes. Hughes said her grandfather built a more profitable career working with his hands than her dad did as a lawyer and, thanks to her grandfather’s financial support, she graduated from Yale University and New York University with minimal student loans.

“That is not the case for most Americans,” said Hughes.

In the higher education landscape, Hughes has noticed that individuals are questioning if it still makes sense to attend college. People are looking at whether they can afford additional schooling as well as if they would get a well-paying job after completing a higher education program. 

“I think Americans are asking a really important question,” Hughes said.

She said the pandemic affected CCRI enrollment. Hughes explained that CCRI looks at the metrics of how many Rhode Islanders are enrolling at the college. She said she’d sweat if that number was down a single percentage point. When Covid hit, that enrollment number dropped 17 percent.

“That number holds true for community colleges across the country,” Hughes said, adding that community colleges in New England community colleges were down 20 percent, resulting in CCRI outperforming the region by 4 percent.

The college started recovering enrollment in February of 2022.

“It was the first time we saw an enrollment uptick since the pandemic began,” Hughes said.

Last fall, CCRI enrolled just north of 12,000 Rhode Islanders in credit bearing. This number is up by roughly 3 percent.

Meanwhile, enrollment for the college’s Promise Program jumped 13 percent. This state-funded program assists Rhode Islanders who’ve graduated from high school and directly enter CCRI as a fulltime student. Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA and earn 30 credits in their first year.

More than 2,000 Rhode Island graduate annually from CCRI.

“We know that north of 96 percent stay right here in Rhode Island, raise their families in Rhode Island, go to work in your companies in Rhode Island and contribute to the economy,” Hughes said.

Hughes said there are certain metrics that the federal government looks at when determining whether to continue making federal financial aid dollars available to colleges. They use the percentage of first time full time students who were never enrolled elsewhere. Hughes said this is a small fraction of CCRI’s population.

“When I arrived, that number hovered 4 percent,” said Hughes, adding that is now up to 18 percent.

This number does not mean that the college is only graduating 4 percent of its student population.

Additionally, a number of students are completing a degree in three years rather than two. The three year graduation rate increased from 18 percent to 30 percent just before the pandemic. Right now, the number is hovering at 17 percent.

Hughes is looking to build a community that is able to evolve and adapt, which means serving students right now and positioning the college for the students who are going to walk through CCRI’s doors in the future.

Looking forward there is room to explore careers in offshore wind. The college is already providing 150 offshore wind workers with basic safety training. The college is also a partner of Electric Boat and has trained more than 700 Rhode Islanders for them. This number is expected to expand.

The institution also has several workforce partnerships with those in healthcare and Industrial Technology. The college provides adult education, literacy and math training and trains bus drivers, truck drivers and kids getting their licenses.

“Workforce training, it’s how we produce a new workforce coming into companies across Rhode Island and how we upskill or reskill an incoming workforce,” Hughes said.

Hughes added that there are ways for community members to assist students. The new Coaching 4 Success program allows adults the opportunity to mentor a youth. This initiative will launch in September and the mentor and mentee will meet once a month either in person or virtually from September through May.