CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Elizabeth Avenue was crawling with students Monday, as another semester is underway at Central Piedmont Community College.
Yet again, the college is scrambling to operate with less money.
"It's definitely going to have an impact," CPCC spokeswoman Jessica Graham said.
Graham said enrollment is expected to rise again this year, even as the amount of money CPCC is getting from the state and county per student is down.
"Students may see increased class sizes. They may find the sections they're trying to get into are full and we can't open new ones," she said.
Students were shoulder-to-shoulder in some classes on Monday.
Student Edwin Nichols said he got the very last spot in the math class he needed, but found other essential courses weren't available.
"Like English -- all the things that we need, [things that] are required for us to graduate, are mainly full," he said. "They're all cut off."
CPCC staff members are now starting their third straight year without raises, and the college has renegotiated its contract for campus security. In addition, maintenance won't happen as often and construction projects are on hold.
Because students are still adding and dropping classes, CPCC doesn't have any hard numbers on enrollment yet. Graham said the college does expect more students than last spring, but since the state's funding formula is based on last year's numbers, the college will continue trying to do more with less.