Studying In The Midnight Hour

The recession is fueling a surge in enrollment at community colleges. Younger students are opting for less expensive two-year programs and older workers are heading back to pick up new skills.

At Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, enrollment is up 23 percent since last year. In response to this increase, and to accommodate working students, Bunker Hill is trying something new: midnight classes. Coffee cups in hand, more than forty bleary-eyed students take Psych 101 or College Writing on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Classes start at 11:45 p.m. and run until 2:45 in the morning.

It’s a bold experiment that community colleges across the country - many struggling to squeeze in more students – are keeping an eye on. We talk Colleen Roach, spokesperson for Bunker Hill Community College, and midnight student Tanneke Burns, a phlebotomist and mother of five who takes midnight classes in psychology and college writing at Bunker Hill.

(Photo by Tadeeej via Flickr/Creative Commons)