South Puget Sound Community College faces growing pains

LACEY, Wash. -- South Puget Sound Community College officials predicted their new Lacey campus would become a popular choice for students in northeastern Thurston County.

They just didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

The Olympian reports that classroom space and sometimes parking already have become scarce at the nearly 8-acre campus, which officially opened in September 2015.

This quarter, the campus is serving the equivalent of 333 full-time students, with about 550 people enrolled in for-credit courses. In addition, the campus expects to serve about 2,000 students in its non-credit programs, and 800 people will use its testing services.

The surge in enrollment has left college officials scrambling to find ways to accommodate the influx of students.

Plans already are in the works to expand the campus.