An aerial view of the Gogebic Community College’s main campus in Ironwood is shown. (Photo courtesy of GCC)

By ANNA ROSSOW

Special to the Journal

MARQUETTE — A financial incentive to attend community colleges is still being offered to a younger age group, but only for the next two months.

The financial aid program called Michigan Reconnect is a tuition-free pathway to an associate’s degree for students aged 25 and older. In 2023, the minimum age was temporarily decreased to 21.

The application period for those 21 to 24 ends on Dec. 31.

Brandy Johnson, the president of the Michigan Community College Association, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer first proposed the program in 2019 in her State of the State Address.

According to the Michigan Reconnect program, the state dedicated $70 million to temporarily expand eligibility.

“At that time, the Legislature was controlled by Republicans, but it was one of the policies that were the most bipartisan to happen at the beginning of the governor’s administration,” Johnson said.

The bill to establish the program passed in March 2020, but implementation was pushed back due to COVID-19, Johnson said. Applications opened in 2021.

Applicants must be Michigan residents with a high school diploma or GED. They must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, and have not earned an associate’s degree or higher.

According to the Michigan Reconnect website, there are 31 community colleges in the state, including three tribal colleges.

Applicants must live in a community college district and attend their local community college to get free tuition. The 20% of Michigan residents who don’t live in one of those districts can get a “sizable discount” if they attend elsewhere, Johnson said.

Johnson said the association would like to see the lower age become permanent, “and that’s likely something we will continue to advocate for.”

Applicants must apply before the deadline and begin classes within the academic year: spring, summer or fall semester.

Renee DeYoung, the vice president of student affairs at North Central Michigan College, said the program implementation and the age change have made a positive impact on its student population.

The college is based in Petoskey with centers in Gaylord and Cheboygan.

She said 122 of the 152 students who are eligible for Reconnect funding are enrolled. After the change in age, 50 more students were eligible, and 43 of them enrolled.

“It’s helping the nontraditional students come back to college and either go a different career path or are able to come and get a degree that they’ve never gotten,” said DeYoung.

“It has been an eye opener for a lot of students, especially in the rural parts of Michigan, to help them have a path to get a credential that maybe they’ve always wanted to have, but they never had the opportunity to have it,” she said.

Kim Zeckovich, the director of admissions, marketing and community relations at Gogebic Community College in the Upper Peninsula, said it has 142 students enrolled in the Reconnect program out of its estimated 1,000 student population.

Of the 142 Reconnect students, 39 are between 21-24. The age expansion allowed the college to increase Reconnect enrollment by 37.9%.

Gogebic is based in Ironwood and has a location in Houghton.

“The average age here at Gogebic has always been much higher than most community colleges,” said Zeckovich. “In the past, we’ve had a number of adult students coming back.

“With COVID, that did shift to more of a younger generation of students attending here, but now it is bringing back the adult population,” she said.

She said Gogebic has many students who attended college but never completed their degrees and who are coming back through the program.

Johnson said Reconnect has changed the demographic makeup of the student population and increased enrollment of working-age students.

She noted that the K-12 population in Michigan is shrinking, creating a smaller pool of high school graduates each year for community colleges to draw from.

“While we have more adults enrolling in college, we are also experiencing at the same time fewer 18-year-olds. So in some ways, they sort of balance,” said Johnson.

Zeckovich said the initiative supports the state’s Sixty by 30 program, an educational goal to have 60% of working-age adults earn a skills certificate or college degree by 2030.

According to Michigan’s Sixty by 30 website, the figure is currently 51.1%.

The program is geared toward closing the skills gap, increasing opportunities for state residents and making Michigan’s economy more competitive.

DeYoung said there has been a push to continue to extend the age to 21-year-olds.

Zeckovich said in the rural western Upper Peninsula, it is especially important for that age group to be included in the program.

She said businesses are desperate for employees and offer high wages to attract students right out of high school. Reconnect gives more incentive to earn a degree at a lower cost.

“It’s a great program,” said DeYoung. “I was very ecstatic that they lowered the age because I thought there was a group of students that were being missed.”