Bob Mertowski's grandfather and father worked at the American Axle auto parts plant in Buffalo, and Mertowski expected to be the third generation to spend his career there.

But American Axle closed a year ago - right before Christmas - and at 45, with a wife and two children to support, Mertowski found himself out of work. He enrolled at Erie Community College's city campus in Buffalo for a degree in building maintenance and management.

"I'm starting all over again," Mertowski said during a pause in his basic electrical class. "I didn't know how good I had it. But one door closes, and another opens."

In these tough economic times, more New Yorkers are turning to community colleges, either to get the degree they never had, or to obtain new skills for a different career. College staff say they are ready to meet that challenge, but the uncertainty of the state's fiscal outlook will make it difficult.

"When the economy goes down, our enrollment always goes up," said Ellen Schuler Mauk, president of the Faculty Association of Suffolk Community College and member of the NYSUT Board of Directors representing community colleges. "The particular challenge now is that when the economy is hurting, our funding is also stretched."

Community colleges started out the academic year with the same funding they had received from the state the previous year.

Then Gov. Paterson proposed a midyear budget cut to community colleges that would have reduced state aid based on enrollment, with per-student cuts ranging from $160 to $300 for the equivalent of each full-time student.

Those cuts probably won't go through this year, but community colleges fear that their reprieve will be short-lived, with cuts likely to occur next year.

It's a huge worry for them, Schuler Mauk said, because of their special mission of serving the neediest students. Community colleges will probably have to raise tuition, and the SUNY community colleges are already among the most costly in the country.

Her own campus might see a funding cut of as much as $5.5 million next year. The result will mean more adjunct faculty, while the remaining full-time faculty bear a heavier administrative burden through committee work and student advisement.

"Our students come to us for all different reasons, and we have to be able to address their needs," Schuler Mauk said.

Enrollment up

At two very different community colleges - one of them fairly small and rural, the other large and urban - NYSUT members talked recently about how they are meeting the increased demand and tailoring their programs and classes.

 Fulton-Montgomery Community College in Johnstown has 2,400 full-time and part-time students this semester, an increase of 8 percent over a year ago.

"That's the biggest jump I've seen, and I've been here 10 years," said Laurie Freeman, an associate professor of biology and the immediate past president of the Fulmont Association of Faculty Educators.

The standard teaching load is already five classes, and many faculty members teach as many as five or six classes - both for extra income and to accommodate scheduling.

"When we see more students, yes, it becomes more difficult in terms of the impact on our job, but these are the times it's needed more," said William Bonner, the faculty association's president.

Students at rural colleges such as Fulton-Montgomery often hope to stay close to home, faculty say, and are less likely to seek admission to a four-year college after completing their studies.

For displaced workers, job training is essential if they, too, hope to stay in the area.

Fulton-Montgomery is the home of the Collaborative Career Learning program, which started with a federal grant in 1983 and has grown to be an important part of the college's offerings in an area that loses small manufacturers on a regular basis.

The latest manufacturing loss was the Callaway golf ball company in Gloversville, which closed last summer, eliminating 160 jobs.

"The idea was to target populations in need of short-term training through learning-by-doing, and to respond to the needs of the local labor market," said Sharon Poling, an associate professor and the Collaborative Career director.

At Erie Community College's downtown Buffalo campus, the classroom for the Classical Baking course smelled like butter and vanilla one recent afternoon, but students were so intent on frosting their edible assignments they didn't seem to notice the heady aroma.

For the first time in the college's 62 years, there's a waiting list for admission to culinary arts, as students seeking employment in a bad economy head for a career that has high turnover and frequent job openings.

"When the economy is down, culinary arts is up," said Anthony Sangin, an assistant professor who teaches the Classical Baking class. "We see it every time in our industry."

Even in a region that's had a depressed economy for as long as anyone can remember, Erie Community College is seeing the effects of the national recession, said Andrew Sako, president of the Faculty Federation of Erie Community College and an at-large director on the NYSUT Board representing community colleges. Sako is the director of the campus Building Management Program.

With 13,000 full-time and part-time students spread among three campuses, "we're at an all-time high in our enrollment," Sako said.

Nursing, which the college touts as one of the hottest jobs right now, is seeing its enrollment soar. The nursing program is gearing up for a 30 percent increase in enrollment in the near future.

Short-term "certificate programs" that last weeks or months, and give students very specific job training, are also popular right now, Sako said.

 One successful certificate program teaches students seeking employment with National Grid how to safely climb utility poles.

The utility is a sponsor of the 20-week program, now in its second year; it offered a job to all 11 students in the first class.

With more than a half-dozen private and public colleges and universities in the Buffalo region, Erie also markets itself as a stepping-stone to a bachelor's degree with the slogan, "Start here, go anywhere."

"A lot of our students go to the University at Buffalo or Buffalo State - there's a 65 to 68 percent transfer rate of people who graduate," Sako said.

For some students, the idea of transferring to a four-year college takes hold once they succeed at Erie and gain confidence to continue. But more students are clearly starting at Erie with the intention of getting an affordable first two years of college and then transferring, Sako said.

"I'd say our enrollment is going to continue to increase," Sako says. "It's about the economy right now."

- Darryl McGrath